Communication method, device, and system

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a communication method, including: sending, by a user equipment, a request message to a micro network node, so that the micro network node sends an indication message to a macro network node; receiving an uplink resource (UG) sent according to the indication message by the macro network node; and sending uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network node according to the uplink resource (UG). Embodiments of the present invention further provide a corresponding device and system. In technical solutions of the present invention, the micro network node participates in accessing the user equipment to a network, so that a UE can rapidly access the network, which reduces an access delay of the UE.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/714,872, filed on Sep. 25, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/830,522, filed on Aug. 19, 2015, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,807,752, which is a continuation of International ApplicationNo. PCT/CN2013/071776, filed on Feb. 22, 2013. The afore-mentionedpatent applications are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of communicationstechnologies, and in particular, to a communication method, device, andsystem.

BACKGROUND

There are two different types of network nodes in a network deploymentscenario, which are evolved base stations (Evolved NodeB, eNB) and smallcell nodes (Small Cell Node, SCN). An eNB and an SCN separately controlone or more cells, and a cell under the eNB and a cell under the SCN mayuse different frequencies. The cell under the eNB covers a larger area,and may be referred to as a macro cell; the cell under the SCN covers asmaller area, and may be referred to as a small cell.

In the prior art, any one of the following situations may occur:

a time alignment timer (Time Alignment Timer, TAT) set for a macro cellin a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) expires, and the UE needs tosend uplink data or signaling to an eNB;

a UE does not have a resource for sending a scheduling request(Scheduling Request, SR) on a macro cell, and the UE needs to senduplink data or signaling to an eNB; and

a UE fails to send a dynamic scheduling request (Dynamic SchedulingRequest, DSR) on the macro cell, where the DSR failure refers to that aquantity of times that the UE continuously sends an SR exceeds a presetmaximum quantity of times.

When any one of the foregoing three situations occurs, the UE needs tofirst initiate a contention-based random access procedure to the eNB,and only after this procedure is completed, the UE can send the uplinkdata or signaling to the eNB, and then the eNB may send, to the UE,downlink data or signaling in response to the uplink data or signaling.The contention-based random access procedure is defined in detail in the3rd Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP) protocol TS 36.321.

The inventors of the present invention find that, the contention-basedrandom access procedure used in the prior art is complex, and has a verylong access delay.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a communication method,which can ensure that a UE rapidly accesses a network, and reduce anaccess delay of the UE. The embodiments of the present invention furtherprovide a corresponding device and system.

A first aspect of the present invention provides a communication method,including:

sending, by a user equipment, a request message to a micro network node,so that the micro network node sends an indication message to a macronetwork node;

receiving an uplink resource (UG) sent according to the indicationmessage by the macro network node; and

sending uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, the receiving an uplink resource (UG) sent according to theindication message by the macro network node includes:

receiving a first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) byusing a non-contention-based random access procedure; and

correspondingly, the sending uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG) includes:

sending the uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementationmanner, the receiving an uplink resource (UG) sent according to theindication message by the macro network node includes:

receiving, through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), theuplink resource (UG) sent by the macro network node;

correspondingly, the method further includes:

reading an existing second timing advance (TA); and

the sending uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the uplink resource (UG) includes:

sending uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the second timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource(UG).

With reference to the first aspect or the first or second possibleimplementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner, both the request message and the indicationmessage carry size of the uplink signaling or uplink data, and the sizeof the uplink signaling or uplink data is used by the macro network nodeto determine the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner, before the step of sending, by a userequipment, a request message to a micro network node, the method furtherincludes:

determining first control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata, where

correspondingly, both the request message and the indication messagecarry the first control information, and the first control informationis used by the macro network node to perform access control on the userequipment.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifth possibleimplementation manner, before the step of sending a request message to amicro network node, the method further includes: receiving a firstconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the firstconfiguration message carries an uplink synchronization flag and/orsecond control information, and the uplink synchronization flag is usedfor instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the firstaspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner, when the firstconfiguration message carries the second control information, after thestep of receiving a first configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, the method further includes:

determining third control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata; and

when the third control information meets an access control rulespecified by the second control information, sending the request messageto the micro network node.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a seventhpossible implementation manner, before the step of sending a requestmessage to a micro network node, the method further includes:

determining fourth control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata, where

the request message carries the fourth control information, so thatafter determining that the fourth control information meets an accesscontrol rule specified by fifth control information that is carried in asecond configuration message sent by the macro network node, the micronetwork node sends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of thefirst aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner, theindication message carries the fourth control information, and thefourth control information is further used by the macro network node toperform access control on the user equipment.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a ninth possibleimplementation manner, before the step of sending a request message to amicro network node, the method further includes:

receiving a third configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the third configuration message carries sixth control information;and

determining seventh control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data;

the sending the request message to the micro network node includes:

when the seventh control information meets an access control rulespecified by the sixth control information, sending the request messageto the micro network node; and

correspondingly, both the request message and the indication messagefurther carry the seventh control information, and the seventh controlinformation is used by the macro network node to perform access controlon the user equipment.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a tenth possibleimplementation manner, before the step of sending a request message to amicro network node, the method further includes:

receiving a fourth configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the fourth configuration message carries eighth controlinformation; and

determining ninth control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata;

the sending the request message to the micro network node includes:

when the ninth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the eighth control information, sending the request messageto the micro network node; and

correspondingly, the request message carries the ninth controlinformation, so that after determining that the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by tenth controlinformation that is carried in a fifth configuration message sent by themacro network node to the micro network node, the micro network nodesends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the tenth possible implementation manner of the firstaspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage carries the ninth control information, and the ninth controlinformation is further used by the macro network node to perform accesscontrol on the user equipment.

With reference to any one of the fourth to the eleventh possibleimplementation manners of the first aspect, in a twelfth possibleimplementation manner, the first control information, the second controlinformation, the third control information, the fourth controlinformation, the fifth control information, the sixth controlinformation, the seventh control information, the eighth controlinformation, the ninth control information, and the tenth controlinformation each include at least one of emergency indicationinformation, service type information, data/signaling information,quality of service (QoS) information, an identity of a radio bearer(RB), an identity of a logical channel (LCH), and an identity of alogical channel group to which the logical channel used by the radiobearer belongs.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a communicationmethod, including:

receiving, by a macro network node, an indication message that is sentby a micro network node after the micro network node receives a requestmessage sent by a user equipment; and

sending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment according to theindication message, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the uplink resource(UG).

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, the sending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentaccording to the indication message includes:

initiating a non-contention-based random access procedure to the userequipment according to the indication message, and sending a firsttiming advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentin the non-contention-based random access procedure, so that the userequipment sends the uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro networknode according to the first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource(UG).

With reference to the second aspect, in a second possible implementationmanner, the sending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentaccording to the indication message includes:

sending the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment through aphysical downlink control channel (PDCCH) according to the indicationmessage, so that the user equipment sends, after reading an existingsecond timing advance (TA), uplink signaling or uplink data according tothe second timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the second aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner, both the request message and the indicationmessage carry size information of the uplink signaling or uplink data;and

before the sending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, themethod further includes:

determining the uplink resource (UG) according to the size informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner, both the request message and theindication message further carry first control information, determinedby the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data, andbefore the step of sending an uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment, the method further includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the firstcontrol information.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner, before the step of receiving theindication message, the method further includes:

sending a first configuration message to the user equipment, where thefirst configuration message carries an uplink synchronization flagand/or second control information, and the uplink synchronization flagis used for instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timingadvance group (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macronetwork node belongs expires, the user equipment to still maintaincontinuous running of a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled bythe micro network node belongs.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the secondaspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner, the firstconfiguration message carries the second control information, so thatthe user equipment sends, after determining third control information ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data, the request message to the micronetwork node when the third control information meets an access controlrule specified by the second control information.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a seventhpossible implementation manner, the request message carries fourthcontrol information, determined by the user equipment, of the uplinksignaling or uplink data; and

before the step of receiving the indication message, the method furtherincludes:

sending a second configuration message to the micro network node, wherethe second configuration message carries fifth control information, sothat after determining that the fourth control information meets anaccess control rule specified by the fifth control information, themicro network node sends the indication message to the macro networknode.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of thesecond aspect, in the eighth possible implementation manner, theindication message carries the fourth control information, and thefourth control information is further used by the macro network node toperform access control on the user equipment; and before the step ofsending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, the methodfurther includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the fourthcontrol information.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a ninthpossible implementation manner, before the step of receiving theindication message, the method further includes:

sending a third configuration message to the user equipment, where thethird configuration message carries sixth control information, so thatafter determining that seventh control information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data meets an access control rule specified by thesixth control information, the user equipment sends the request messageto the micro network node; and

correspondingly, both the request message and the indication messagefurther carry the seventh control information, and before the step ofsending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, the methodfurther includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the seventhcontrol information.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a tenthpossible implementation manner, before the step of receiving theindication message, the method further includes:

sending a fourth configuration message to the user equipment, where thefourth configuration message carries eighth control information, so thatafter determining that ninth control information of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by the eighthcontrol information, the user equipment sends the request message to themicro network node, where

correspondingly, the request message carries the ninth controlinformation; and

sending a fifth configuration message to the micro network node, wherethe fifth configuration message carries tenth control information, sothat after determining that the ninth control information meets anaccess control rule specified by the tenth control information, themicro network node sends the indication message to the macro networknode.

With reference to the tenth possible implementation manner of the secondaspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage carries the ninth control information, and the ninth controlinformation is further used by the macro network node to perform accesscontrol on the user equipment; and before the step of sending an uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment, the method further includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the ninthcontrol information.

With reference to any one of the fourth to the eleventh possibleimplementation manners of the second aspect, in a twelfth possibleimplementation manner, the first control information, the second controlinformation, the third control information, the fourth controlinformation, the fifth control information, the sixth controlinformation, the seventh control information, the eighth controlinformation, the ninth control information, and the tenth controlinformation each include at least one of emergency indicationinformation, service type information, data/signaling information,quality of service (QoS) information, an identity of a radio bearer(RB), an identity of a logical channel (LCH), and an identity of alogical channel group to which the logical channel used by the radiobearer belongs.

A third aspect of the present invention provides a communication method,including:

receiving, by a micro network node, a request message sent by a userequipment; and

sending an indication message to a macro network node according to therequest message, so that the macro network node sends an uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment, and then the user equipment sends uplinksignaling or uplink data according to the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, both the request message and the indication message carry firstcontrol information, determined by the user equipment, of the uplinksignaling or uplink data, and the first control information is used bythe macro network node to perform access control on the user equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in a second possible implementationmanner, the request message carries fourth control information,determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata, and before the step of receiving a request message sent by a userequipment, the method further includes:

receiving a second configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the second configuration message carries fifth controlinformation; and

correspondingly, the sending an indication message to a macro networknode includes:

when the fourth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the fifth control information, sending the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the thirdaspect, in a third possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage further carries the fourth control information, and the fourthcontrol information is further used by the macro network node to performaccess control on the user equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementationmanner, the receiving a request message sent by a user equipmentincludes:

when seventh control information, determined by the user equipment, ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rulespecified by sixth control information that is carried in a thirdconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, receiving therequest message sent by the user equipment, where the request messagecarries the seventh control information, where

the indication message carries the seventh control information, and theseventh control information is used by the macro network node to performaccess control on the user equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementationmanner, the receiving a request message sent by a user equipmentincludes:

when ninth control information, determined by the user equipment, of theuplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rule specifiedby eighth control information that is carried in a fourth configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, receiving the request messagesent by the user equipment, where the request message carries the ninthcontrol information;

before the step of receiving a request message sent by a user equipment,the method further includes:

receiving a fifth configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the fifth configuration message carries tenth control information;and

correspondingly, the sending an indication message to a macro networknode includes:

when the ninth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the tenth control information, sending the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the thirdaspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage carries the ninth control information, and the ninth controlinformation is further used by the macro network node to perform accesscontrol on the user equipment.

With reference to any one of the first to the sixth possibleimplementation manners of the third aspect, in a seventh possibleimplementation manner, the first control information, the fourth controlinformation, the fifth control information, the sixth controlinformation, the seventh control information, the eighth controlinformation, the ninth control information, and the tenth controlinformation each include at least one of emergency indicationinformation, service type information, data/signaling information,quality of service (QoS) information, an identity of a radio bearer(RB), an identity of a logical channel (LCH), and an identity of alogical channel group to which the logical channel used by the radiobearer belongs.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a communicationmethod, including:

receiving, by a user equipment, configuration information sent by amacro network node; and

sending uplink signaling or uplink data to a micro network node and/orthe macro network node according to the configuration information.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, the method further includes:

receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode and/or the micro network node; and

when the downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode and the micro network node is received, deleting duplicatesignaling or data in the downlink signaling or downlink data sent by themacro network node and in the downlink signaling or downlink data sentby the micro network node.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,the configuration information includes an identity of a micro cellcontrolled by the micro network node and an identity of a radio bearer(RB) of the user equipment; and

the sending uplink signaling or uplink data to a micro network nodeaccording to the configuration information includes:

sending, to the micro network node, the uplink signaling or uplink datatransmitted on a radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the uplink signaling or uplink data is sent through a defaultlogical channel by using a micro cell corresponding to the identity ofthe micro cell.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner, in a thirdpossible implementation manner, the configuration information furtherincludes an identity of a logical channel (LCH); and the sending uplinksignaling or uplink data to a micro network node according to theconfiguration information includes:

sending, to the micro network node, the uplink signaling or uplink datatransmitted on the radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the uplink signaling or uplink data is sent through a logicalchannel corresponding to the identity of the LCH by using the micro cellcorresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the second or third possible implementation manner ofthe fourth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, theconfiguration information further includes an uplink flag; and thereceiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode and/or the micro network node includes:

receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode.

With reference to any one of the second to the fourth possibleimplementation manners of the fourth aspect, in a fifth possibleimplementation manner, the configuration information further includes anuplink synchronization flag, where the uplink synchronization flag isused for instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timingadvance group (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macronetwork node belongs expires, the user equipment to still maintaincontinuous running of a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled bythe micro network node belongs.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one of the first to the fifthpossible implementation manners of the fourth aspect, in a sixthpossible implementation manner, the uplink signaling is an uplink radioresource control (RRC) message and the downlink signaling is a downlinkradio resource control (RRC) message.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the fourthaspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner, the uplink RRCmessage includes an uplink measurement report message and an uplinkinformation transfer message, and the downlink RRC message includes ahandover command message and a downlink information transfer message.

A fifth aspect of the present invention provides a communication method,including:

sending, by a macro network node, configuration information to a userequipment, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplinkdata to a micro network node and/or the macro network node according tothe configuration information; and

receiving the uplink signaling or uplink data forwarded by the micronetwork node and sent by the user equipment, and/or receiving the uplinksignaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, when the uplink signaling or uplink data that is sent by theuser equipment and forwarded by the micro network node is received andthe uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment isreceived, duplicate signaling or data in the uplink signaling or uplinkdata sent by the user equipment and in the uplink signaling or uplinkdata sent by the micro network node is deleted.

With reference to the fifth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the fifth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,the method further includes:

sending another configuration information to the micro network node, sothat the micro network node forwards downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment according to the another configurationinformation; and

sending the downlink signaling or downlink data to the micro networknode.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the fifthaspect, in a third possible implementation manner, the uplink signalingis an uplink radio resource control (RRC) message and the downlinksignaling is a downlink radio resource control (RRC) message.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the fifthaspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the uplink RRCmessage includes an uplink measurement report message and an uplinkinformation transfer message, and the downlink RRC message includes ahandover command message and a downlink information transfer message.

A sixth aspect of the present invention provides a communication method,including:

receiving, by a micro network node, another configuration informationsent by a macro network node;

receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode; and

forwarding the downlink signaling or downlink data to a user equipmentaccording to the another configuration information.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, the another configuration information includes an identity ofthe user equipment and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) of the userequipment; and

the forwarding the downlink signaling or downlink data to a userequipment according to the another configuration information includes:

sending, to the user equipment, the downlink signaling or downlink datatransmitted on a radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the downlink signaling or downlink data is sent through a defaultlogical channel by using a micro cell corresponding to an identity ofthe micro cell.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the sixthaspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the anotherconfiguration information further includes an identity of a logicalchannel (LCH); and the forwarding the downlink signaling or downlinkdata to the user equipment according to the another configurationinformation includes:

sending, to the user equipment, the downlink signaling or downlink datatransmitted on the radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the downlink signaling or downlink data is sent through a logicalchannel corresponding to the identity of the LCH by using the micro cellcorresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the sixth aspect, and the first or the second possibleimplementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner, the downlink signaling is a downlink radioresource control (RRC) message.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the sixthaspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the downlink RRCmessage includes a handover command message and a downlink informationtransfer message.

A seventh aspect of the present invention provides a user equipment,including:

a first sending unit, configured to send a request message to a micronetwork node, so that the micro network node sends an indication messageto a macro network node; and

an obtaining unit, configured to receive an uplink resource (UG) sentaccording to the indication message by the macro network node, where

the first sending unit is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to the macro network node according to the uplink resource (UG)obtained by the obtaining unit.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner:

the obtaining unit is configured to receive a first timing advance (TA)and the uplink resource (UG) by using a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure; and

the first sending unit is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to the macro network node according to the first timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtaining unit.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner:

the obtaining unit is configured to read an existing second timingadvance (TA), and receive, through a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro network node; and

the first sending unit is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to the macro network node according to the second timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtaining unit.

With reference to the seventh aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a thirdpossible implementation manner, the user equipment further includes:

a first determining unit, configured to determine first controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where both therequest message and the indication message carry the first controlinformation, and the first control information is used by the macronetwork node to perform access control on the user equipment.

With reference to the seventh aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner, the user equipment further includes:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive a first configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the first configurationmessage carries an uplink synchronization flag and/or second controlinformation, and the uplink synchronization flag is used forinstructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation manner of theseventh aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, when thefirst configuration message carries the second control information, theuser equipment further includes:

a second determining unit, configured to determine third controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, and send the requestmessage to the micro network node when the third control informationmeets an access control rule specified by the second controlinformation.

With reference to the seventh aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a sixthpossible implementation manner, the user equipment further includes:

a third determining unit, configured to determine fourth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where the requestmessage carries the fourth control information, so that afterdetermining that the fourth control information meets an access controlrule specified by fifth control information that is carried in a secondconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, the micro networknode sends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the seventh aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a seventhpossible implementation manner, the user equipment further includes:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive a third configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the third configurationmessage carries sixth control information; and

a fourth determining unit, configured to determine seventh controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where

the first sending unit is further configured to: when the seventhcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the sixthcontrol information, send the request message to the micro network node.

With reference to the seventh aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in an eighthpossible implementation manner, the user equipment further includes:

a third receiving unit, configured to receive a fourth configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the fourth configurationmessage carries eighth control information; and

a fifth determining unit, configured to determine ninth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where

the first sending unit is further configured to: when the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

An eighth aspect of the present invention provides a macro network nodedevice, including:

a fourth receiving unit, configured to receive an indication messagethat is sent by a micro network node after the micro network nodereceives a request message sent by a user equipment; and

a second sending unit, configured to send an uplink resource (UG) to theuser equipment according to the indication message, so that the userequipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according to the uplinkresource (UG).

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner:

the second sending unit is configured to initiate a non-contention-basedrandom access procedure to the user equipment according to theindication message, and send a first timing advance (TA) and the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment in the non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the first timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a second possible implementationmanner:

the second sending unit is configured to send the uplink resource (UG)to the user equipment through a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) according to the indication message, so that the user equipmentsends, after reading an existing second timing advance (TA), uplinksignaling or uplink data to the macro network node according to thesecond timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the eighth aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner, both the request message and the indicationmessage carry size information of the uplink signaling or uplink data tobe sent; and the macro network node device further includes: a resourcedetermining unit, where

the resource determining unit is configured to determine the uplinkresource (UG) according to the size information of the uplink signalingor uplink data.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the eighth aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner, both the request message and theindication message further carry first control information, determinedby the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data; and themacro network node device further includes:

a first control unit, configured to perform access control on the userequipment according to the first control information.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the eighth aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner:

the second sending unit is further configured to send a firstconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the firstconfiguration message carries an uplink synchronization flag and/orsecond control information, and the uplink synchronization flag is usedfor instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the eighth aspect, in a sixthpossible implementation manner:

the request message carries fourth control information, determined bythe user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data; and

The second sending unit is further configured to send a secondconfiguration message to the micro network node, where the secondconfiguration message carries fifth control information, so that afterdetermining that the fourth control information meets an access controlrule specified by the fifth control information, the micro network nodesends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the eighthaspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage further carries the fourth control information; and the macronetwork node device further includes:

a second control unit, configured to perform access control on the userequipment according to the fourth control information.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the eighth aspect, in an eighthpossible implementation manner,

the second sending unit is further configured to send a thirdconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the thirdconfiguration message carries sixth control information, so that afterdetermining that seventh control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data meets an access control rule specified by the sixth controlinformation, the user equipment sends the request message to the micronetwork node; and the macro network node device further includes:

a third control unit, configured to: when both the request message andthe indication message further carry the seventh control information,perform access control on the user equipment according to the seventhcontrol information.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the eighth aspect, in a ninthpossible implementation manner:

the second sending unit is further configured to send a fourthconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the fourthconfiguration message carries eighth control information, so that afterdetermining that ninth control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, the user equipment sends the request message to the micronetwork node;

the request message carries the ninth control information; and

the second sending unit is further configured to send a fifthconfiguration message to the micro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information, so that afterdetermining that the ninth control information meets an access controlrule specified by the tenth control information, the micro network nodesends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the eighthaspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner, the indicationmessage carries the ninth control information; and the macro networknode device further includes:

a fourth control unit, configured to perform access control on the userequipment according to the ninth control information.

A ninth aspect of the present invention provides a micro network nodedevice, including:

a fifth receiving unit, configured to receive a request message sent bya user equipment; and

a third sending unit, configured to send an indication message to amacro network node, so that the macro network node allocates an uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment, and then the user equipment sendsuplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network node according tothe uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner,

the fifth receiving unit is further configured to receive a secondconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the secondconfiguration message carries fifth control information; and the micronetwork node device further includes:

a sixth determining unit, configured to determine whether fourth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the fifth controlinformation, where

the third sending unit is further configured to: after the fourthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the fifthcontrol information, send the indication message to the macro networknode.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the ninthaspect, in a second possible implementation manner:

the fifth receiving unit is configured to: when seventh controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by sixth controlinformation that is carried in a third configuration message sent by themacro network node, receive the request message sent by the userequipment, where the request message carries the seventh controlinformation.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a third possible implementationmanner,

the fifth receiving unit is configured to: when ninth controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by eighth controlinformation that is carried in a fourth configuration message sent bythe macro network node, receive the request message sent by the userequipment, where the request message carries the ninth controlinformation; and

the fifth receiving unit is further configured to receive a fifthconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information; and the micronetwork node device further includes:

a seventh determining unit, configured to determine whether the ninthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the tenthcontrol information, where

the third sending unit is further configured to: when the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the tenth controlinformation, send the indication message to the macro network node.

A tenth aspect of the present invention provides a user equipment,including:

a sixth receiving unit, configured to receive configuration informationsent by a macro network node; and

a fourth sending unit, configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to a micro network node and/or the macro network node according tothe configuration information received by the sixth receiving unit.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner:

the sixth receiving unit is configured to receive downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node and/or the micro networknode; the user equipment further includes

a first processing unit, configured to: when the downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node and the micro network nodeis received, delete duplicate signaling or data in the downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node and in thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the micro network node.

With reference to the tenth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the tenth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,the configuration information includes an identity of a micro cellcontrolled by the micro network node and an identity of a radio bearer(RB) of the user equipment; and

the fourth sending unit is configured to send, to the micro networknode, the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent through a default logical channel by using a microcell corresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the tenthaspect, in a third possible implementation manner, the configurationinformation further includes an identity of a logical channel (LCH); and

the fourth sending unit is configured to send, to the micro networknode, the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent through a logical channel corresponding to theidentity of the LCH by using the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

With reference to the second or the third possible implementation mannerof the tenth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, theconfiguration information further includes an uplink flag; and

the sixth receiving unit is configured to receive downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node.

An eleventh aspect of the present invention provides a macro networknode device, including:

a fifth sending unit, configured to send configuration information to auser equipment, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling oruplink data to a micro network node and/or a macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information; and

a seventh receiving unit, configured to receive the uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node, and/or receive the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner, the macro network node device further includes:

a second processing unit, configured to: when the uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node is received and the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment is received, delete duplicate signaling ordata in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipmentand in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro networknode.

With reference to the eleventh aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the eleventh aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner, the macro network node device further includes:

a sixth sending unit, configured to send another configurationinformation to the micro network node, so that the micro network nodeforwards downlink signaling or downlink data to the user equipmentaccording to the another configuration information, where

the sixth sending unit is further configured to send the downlinksignaling or downlink data to the micro network node.

A twelfth aspect of the present invention provides a micro network nodedevice, including:

an eighth receiving unit, configured to receive another configurationinformation sent by a macro network node, where

the eighth receiving unit is further configured to receive downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node; and

a seventh sending unit, configured to forward the downlink signaling ordownlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner, the another configuration information includes an identity ofthe user equipment and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) of the userequipment; and

the seventh sending unit is configured to send, to the user equipment,the downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlink signaling ordownlink data is sent through a default logical channel by using a microcell corresponding to an identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of thetwelfth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the anotherconfiguration information further includes an identity of a logicalchannel (LCH); and

the seventh sending unit is configured to send, to the user equipment,the downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlink signaling ordownlink data is sent through a logical channel corresponding to theidentity of the LCH by using the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

A thirteenth aspect of the present invention provides a user equipment,including a first receiver, a first transmitter, a first memory, and afirst processor, where

the first transmitter is configured to send a request message to a micronetwork node, so that the micro network node sends an indication messageto a macro network node;

the first receiver is configured to receive an uplink resource (UG) sentaccording to the indication message by the macro network node; and

the first transmitter is further configured to send uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the uplink resource(UG).

With reference to the thirteenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner, the first receiver is configured to receive afirst timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) by using anon-contention-based random access procedure; and

the first transmitter is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to the macro network node according to the first timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the thirteenth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner, the first receiver is configured to read anexisting second timing advance (TA), and receive, through a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by themacro network node; and

the first transmitter is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to the macro network node according to the second timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the thirteenth aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the thirteenth aspect, in a thirdpossible implementation manner:

the first processor is configured to determine first control informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the thirteenth aspect, in afourth possible implementation manner:

the first receiver is configured to receive a first configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the first configurationmessage carries an uplink synchronization flag and/or second controlinformation, and the uplink synchronization flag is used forinstructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation manner of thethirteenth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, the firstprocessor is configured to determine third control information of theuplink signaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter is configured to: when the third controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the second controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the thirteenth aspect, in asixth possible implementation manner:

the first processor is configured to determine fourth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where the requestmessage carries the fourth control information, so that afterdetermining that the fourth control information meets an access controlrule specified by fifth control information that is carried in a secondconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, the micro networknode sends the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the thirteenth aspect, in aseventh possible implementation manner:

the first receiver is configured to receive a third configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the third configurationmessage carries sixth control information;

the first processor is configured to determine seventh controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter is configured to: when the seventh controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the sixth controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the thirteenth aspect, in aneighth possible implementation manner:

the first receiver is configured to receive a fourth configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the fourth configurationmessage carries eighth control information;

the first processor is configured to determine ninth control informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter is configured to: when the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

A fourteenth aspect of the present invention provides a macro networknode device, including a second receiver, a second transmitter, a secondmemory, and a second processor, where

the second receiver is configured to receive an indication message thatis sent by a micro network node after the micro network node receives arequest message sent by a user equipment; and

the second transmitter is configured to send an uplink resource (UG) tothe user equipment according to the indication message, so that the userequipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according to the uplinkresource (UG).

With reference to the fourteenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner:

the second transmitter is configured to initiate a non-contention-basedrandom access procedure to the user equipment according to theindication message, and send a first timing advance (TA) and the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment in the non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the user equipment sends the uplink signalingor uplink data to the macro network node according to the first timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the fourteenth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner, the second transmitter is configured to send theuplink resource (UG) to the user equipment through a physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) according to the indication message, so that theuser equipment sends, after reading an existing second timing advance(TA), uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the second timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource(UG).

With reference to the fourteenth aspect, and the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the fourteenth aspect, in a thirdpossible implementation manner, both the request message and theindication message carry size information of the uplink signaling oruplink data to be sent; and

the second processor is configured to determine the uplink resource (UG)according to the size information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the fourteenth aspect, in afourth possible implementation manner:

both the request message and the indication message further carry firstcontrol information, determined by the user equipment, of the uplinksignaling or uplink data; and

the second processor is configured to perform access control on the userequipment according to the first control information.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the fourteenth aspect, in afifth possible implementation manner:

the second transmitter is configured to send a first configurationmessage to the user equipment, where the first configuration messagecarries an uplink synchronization flag and/or second controlinformation, and the uplink synchronization flag is used forinstructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect, and any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the fourteenth aspect, in asixth possible implementation manner:

the second transmitter is configured to send a second configurationmessage to the micro network node, where the second configurationmessage carries fifth control information, so that after determiningthat fourth control information meets an access control rule specifiedby the fifth control information, the micro network node sends theindication message to the macro network node; and

the second processor is further configured to: when the indicationmessage carries the fourth control information, perform access controlon the user equipment according to the fourth control information.

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of thefourteenth aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner:

the second transmitter is configured to send a third configurationmessage to the user equipment, where the third configuration messagecarries sixth control information, so that after determining thatseventh control information of the uplink signaling or uplink data meetsan access control rule specified by the sixth control information, theuser equipment sends the request message to the micro network node; and

the second processor is configured to: when both the request message andthe indication message further carry the seventh control information,perform access control on the user equipment according to the seventhcontrol information.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any one of the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the fourteenth aspect, in aneighth possible implementation manner:

the second transmitter is configured to send a fourth configurationmessage to the user equipment, where the fourth configuration messagecarries eighth control information, so that after determining that ninthcontrol information of the uplink signaling or uplink data meets anaccess control rule specified by the eighth control information, theuser equipment sends the request message to the micro network node; and

the second transmitter is configured to send a fifth configurationmessage to the micro network node, where the fifth configuration messagecarries tenth control information, so that after determining that theninth control information meets an access control rule specified by thetenth control information, the micro network node sends the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of thefourteenth aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner:

the second processor is configured to: when the indication messagecarries the ninth control information, perform access control on theuser equipment according to the ninth control information.

A fifteenth aspect of the present invention provides a micro networknode device, including a third receiver, a third transmitter, a thirdmemory, and a third processor, where

the third receiver is configured to receive a request message sent by auser equipment; and

the third transmitter is configured to send an indication message to amacro network node according to the request message, so that the macronetwork node sends an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, andthen the user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG).

With reference to the fifteenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner, the request message carries fourth controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data;

the third receiver is configured to receive a second configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the second configurationmessage carries fifth control information;

the third processor is configured to determine whether the fourthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the fifthcontrol information; and

the third transmitter is configured to: after the fourth controlinformation meets the access control rule specified by the fifth controlinformation, send the indication message to the macro network node.

With reference to the fifteenth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner:

the third receiver is configured to: when seventh control information,determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink datameets an access control rule specified by sixth control information thatis carried in a third configuration message sent by the macro networknode, receive the request message sent by the user equipment, where therequest message carries the seventh control information.

With reference to the fifteenth aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner:

the third receiver is configured to: when ninth control information,determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink datameets an access control rule specified by eighth control informationthat is carried in a fourth configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, receive the request message sent by the user equipment,where the request message carries the ninth control information; and

the third receiver is further configured to receive a fifthconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information;

the third processor is configured to determine whether the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule of the tenth controlinformation; and

the third transmitter is further configured to: when the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the tenth controlinformation, send the indication message to the macro network node.

A sixteenth aspect of the present invention provides a user equipment,including a fourth receiver, a fourth transmitter, a fourth memory, anda fourth processor, where

the fourth receiver is configured to receive configuration informationsent by a macro network node; and

the fourth transmitter is configured to send uplink signaling or uplinkdata to a micro network node and/or the macro network node according tothe configuration information.

With reference to the sixteenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner:

the fourth receiver is configured to receive downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node and/or the micro networknode; and

the fourth processor is configured to: when the downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node and the micro network nodeis received, delete duplicate signaling or data in the downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node and in thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the micro network node.

With reference to the sixteenth aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the sixteenth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner, the configuration information includes anidentity of a micro cell controlled by the micro network node and anidentity of a radio bearer (RB) of the user equipment; and

the fourth transmitter is configured to send, to the micro network node,the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent through a default logical channel by using a microcell corresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of thesixteenth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner:

the fourth transmitter is configured to send, to the micro network node,the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent through a logical channel corresponding to theidentity of the LCH by using the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

With reference to the second or the third possible implementation mannerof the sixteenth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, theconfiguration information further includes an uplink flag; and

the fourth receiver is configured to receive downlink signaling ordownlink data sent by the macro network node.

A seventeenth aspect of the present invention provides a macro networknode device, including a fifth receiver, a fifth transmitter, a fifthmemory, and a fifth processor, where

the fifth transmitter is configured to send configuration information toa user equipment, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling oruplink data to a micro network node and/or a macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information; and

the fifth receiver is configured to receive the uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node, and/or receive the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment.

With reference to the seventeenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner:

the fifth processor is configured to: when the uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node is received and the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment is received, delete duplicate signaling ordata in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipmentand in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro networknode.

With reference to the seventeenth aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the seventeenth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner, the fifth transmitter is configured to sendanother configuration information to the micro network node, so that themicro network node forwards downlink signaling or downlink data to theuser equipment according to the another configuration information; and

the fifth transmitter is configured to send the downlink signaling ordownlink data to the micro network node.

An eighteenth aspect of the present invention provides a micro networknode device, including a sixth receiver, a sixth transmitter, a sixthmemory, and a sixth processor, where

the sixth receiver is configured to receive another configurationinformation sent by a macro network node;

the sixth receiver is further configured to receive downlink signalingor downlink data sent by the macro network node; and

the sixth transmitter is configured to forward the downlink signaling ordownlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information.

With reference to the eighteenth aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner, the another configuration information includes anidentity of the user equipment and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) ofthe user equipment; and

the sixth transmitter is configured to send, to the user equipment, thedownlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlink signaling ordownlink data is sent through a default logical channel by using a microcell corresponding to an identity of the micro cell.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of theeighteenth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, when theanother configuration information further includes an identity of alogical channel (LCH),

the sixth transmitter is configured to send, to the user equipment, thedownlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlink signaling ordownlink data is sent through a logical channel corresponding to theidentity of the LCH by using the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

A nineteenth aspect of the present invention provides a communicationsystem, including: a user equipment, a macro network node device, and amicro network node device, where

the user equipment is the user equipment described in the foregoingfirst set of technical solutions;

the macro network node device is the macro network node device describedin the foregoing first set of technical solutions; and

the micro network node device is the micro network node device describedin the foregoing first set of technical solutions.

A twentieth aspect of the present invention provides a communicationsystem, including: a user equipment, a macro network node device, and amicro network node device, where

the user equipment is the user equipment described in the foregoingsecond set of technical solutions;

the macro network node device is the macro network node device describedin the foregoing second set of technical solutions; and

the micro network node device is the micro network node device describedin the foregoing second set of technical solutions.

In the embodiments of the present invention, a user equipment sends arequest message to a micro network node, so that the micro network nodesends an indication message to a macro network node; receives an uplinkresource (UG) sent according to the indication message by the macronetwork node; and sends uplink signaling or uplink data to the macronetwork node according to the uplink resource (UG). Compared with theprior art where a contention-based random access procedure is directlyused for UE access without participation of a micro network node, thesolutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention canenable a UE to more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an accessdelay of the UE.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention more clearly, the following briefly introduces theaccompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments.Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description showmerely some embodiments of the present invention, and a person ofordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from theseaccompanying drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communication methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationmethod according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an applicationscenario according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a macro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a macro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a macro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a macro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a macro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a micro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a micro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a micro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 34 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a micro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 37 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 38 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a micro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 39 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a user equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 40 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a macro network nodedevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 41 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a micro networknode device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 42A is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communicationsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 42B is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a communicationsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a communication method,which can ensure that a UE rapidly accesses a network, and reduce anaccess delay of the UE. The embodiments of the present invention furtherprovide a corresponding device and system. The following describes themethod, device, and system in detail separately.

In the embodiments of the present invention, a user equipment (userequipment, UE) may be a device capable of communication, such as amobile phone, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant,PDA), a notebook computer, or a personal computer (Personal computer,PC). A micro network node may be a relay node (Relay Node, RN), a homebase station (Home eNB or Home NB), a micro base station (Micro eNB), apico base station (Pico eNB), a femto base station (Femto eNB), a WiFiaccess point (Access Point, AP), or the like, and may also be a userequipment capable of implementing functions of the foregoing micronetwork node. A macro network node may be an evolved base station(evolved NodeB, eNB), and may also be a base station (Node B, NB), adonor base station (Donor eNB, DeNB), a HeNB gateway, an HNB gateway, orthe like.

An uplink resource (Uplink Grant, UG) may also be referred to as anuplink grant.

The following clearly describes the technical solutions in theembodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Apparently, thedescribed embodiments are merely a part rather than all of theembodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained bya person skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the presentinvention without creative efforts shall fall within the protectionscope of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a communication method according to an embodimentof the present invention includes:

101: A user equipment sends a request message to a micro network node,so that the micro network node sends an indication message to a macronetwork node.

The request message in the embodiment of the present invention may be anaccess request message, a scheduling request message, a connectionrequest message, a request message for sending new data or signaling, ora radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) message; and mayalso be a physical signal or a control information element.

102: The user equipment receives an uplink resource (UG) sent accordingto the indication message by the macro network node.

103: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, a UE sends a request messageto a micro network node, so that the micro network node sends anindication message to a macro network node; and the UE receives anuplink resource (UG) sent according to the indication message by themacro network node, and sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG). Compared withthe prior art where no micro network node participates and a UE directlyuses a contention-based random access procedure to perform access, thesolution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can enablea UE to more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an access delayof the UE.

During implementation of the present invention, none of the userequipment, the macro network node, and the micro network node controlssending, by the UE, the uplink data or uplink signaling; as long as theuser initiates an access request, and after the macro network nodereceives an indication from the micro network node, the macro networknode allocates the uplink resource to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1, in a firstoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the receiving an uplink resource(UG) sent according to the indication message by the macro network nodeincludes:

receiving a first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) byusing a non-contention-based random access procedure.

Correspondingly, the sending uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG) includes:

sending the uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, the non-contention-basedrandom access procedure is defined in detail in the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP)protocol TS 36.321, and specifically includes the following: the macronetwork node sends a non-contention-based random access command to theUE, the UE responds to the non-contention-based random access command bysending a random access request to the macro network node, and the macronetwork node sends a random access response to the UE, where the randomaccess response includes the uplink channel resource (UG) and the timingadvance (Time Advance, TA) which are allocated. In this way, the UE canobtain an uplink sending time according to the TA, and sends the uplinksignaling or uplink data at the uplink sending time by using the UG.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1, in a secondoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the receiving an uplink resource(UG) sent according to the indication message by the macro network nodeincludes:

receiving, through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), theuplink resource (UG) sent by the macro network node.

Correspondingly, the method further includes:

reading an existing second timing advance (TA).

The sending uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the uplink resource (UG) includes:

sending the uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the second timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource(UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, when a TA has existed in theUE, the UE does not need to obtain a TA from the macro network node.Therefore, without using non-contention-based random access procedure,the macro network node can still allocate the UG to the UE, for example,the macro network node sends the UE a UG allocated to the UE directlythrough the physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink ControlChannel, PDCCH).

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and thefirst or the second optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1, in athird optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, both the request message and theindication message carry size information of the uplink signaling oruplink data, and the size information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata is used by the macro network node to determine the uplink resource(UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may add size of theuplink signaling or uplink data sent in the foregoing embodiment to thesent request message, so that the macro network node may determine sizeof the UG according to the size of the uplink signaling or uplink data.Therefore, compared with the UG randomly allocated in the foregoingembodiment, the UG allocated in the embodiment of the present inventionexactly adapts to the uplink signaling or uplink data to be sent. Inthis way, it is avoided that the allocated uplink resource is inadequateto send the uplink signaling or uplink data and that excessive UGs areallocated to cause a waste of UGs.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and thefirst to the third optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 1, in afourth optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, before the step of sending arequest message to a micro network node, the method further includes:

determining first control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata, where

both the request message and the indication message carry the firstcontrol information, and the first control information is used by themacro network node to perform access control on the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first controlinformation is used by the macro network node to perform access controlon the user equipment, which is specifically as follows: only afterdetermining, according to the first control information, that the uplinksignaling or uplink data meets a preset access control rule, the macronetwork node sends the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, before sending the requestmessage, the UE may determine the first control information of theuplink signaling or uplink data according to the uplink signaling oruplink data to be sent. For example, when the UE is about to sendsignaling for an emergency call, it may be determined that the firstcontrol information includes: emergency indication information, aservice type being an emergency call service, or what is to be sentbeing signaling.

The first control information may be at least one of emergencyindication information, service type information, data information orsignaling information, quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS)information, an identity of a radio bearer (Radio Bearer, RB), anidentity of a logical channel (Logical CHannel, LCH), and an identity ofa logical channel group to which the logical channel used by the radiobearer belongs.

The emergency indication information indicates whether the data orsignaling that needs to be sent by the UE is emergent.

Specifically, the emergency indication may be expressed by a bit. Whenthe bit is 1, it indicates that the data or signaling is emergent; andwhen the bit is 0, it indicates that the data or signaling is notemergent, and vice versa.

The service type indicates a type of a service to be initiated by theUE, and the information is specifically any one of the following: anemergency call, a high-priority service, a delay-insensitive service,and the like.

The data or signaling indicates whether data or signaling is to be sentby the UE.

The quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) information includes aQoS parameter of a service to be initiated by the UE, and mayspecifically include a QoS class identifier (QoS Class Identifier, QCI),an allocation and retention priority (Allocation and Retention Priority,ARP), and the like.

The identity of a radio bearer (Radio Bearer, RB), or the identity of alogical channel (Logical CHannel, LCH) used by the RB, or the identityof an LCH group to which the LCH used by the RB belongs indicates one ormore established RBs which the uplink data or signaling to be sent bythe UE is from.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodecontrols the access of the UE, and when the indication message includesthe first control information, the macro network node determines that itis required to allocate the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentwhen determining that the first control information meets an accesscontrol rule.

The access control rule in the embodiment of the present invention maybe as follows: it is required to allocate an uplink resource for anemergency call, to allocate an uplink resource for signaling, toallocate an uplink resource for a high-priority service, or the like.For example, when the first control information is an emergency call,the macro network node determines that the emergency call meets theaccess control rule, and then determines that it is required to allocatethe uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1, and thefirst to the third optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 1, in afifth optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, before the step of sending arequest message to a micro network node, the method further includes:receiving a first configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the first configuration message carries an uplink synchronizationflag and/or second control information, and the uplink synchronizationflag is used for instructing, after a time alignment timer (TimeAlignment Timer, TAT) of a timing advance group (Timing advance group,TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network node belongsexpires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous running of aTAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro network nodebelongs.

Optionally, based on the fifth optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.1, in a sixth optional embodiment according to the embodiment of thepresent invention, when the first configuration message carries thesecond control information, after the step of receiving a firstconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, the method furtherincludes:

determining third control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata; and

when the third control information meets an access control rulespecified by the second control information, sending the access requestmessage to the micro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to control theaccess of the UE, the macro network node sends the first configurationmessage to the UE, where the first configuration message carries thesecond control information; the UE determines whether third controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an accesscontrol rule specified by the second control information, and when thethird control information meets the access control rule specified by thesecond control information, the UE determines that it is required tosend the request message to the micro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the control rule may vary inmultiple situations. For example, the second control informationincludes emergency indication information and emergency callinformation, and the specified access control rule indicates that, whenthe second control information includes one piece of information in thethird control information, the request message can be sent. For example,when the third control information only includes the emergencyindication information, the request message can be sent. Alternatively,when the third control information includes the emergency indicationinformation and a signaling identity, and the second control informationincludes the emergency indication information, the request message mayalso be sent. If the specified access control rule is that the requestmessage can be sent only when the information in the third controlinformation is completely identical with the information in the secondcontrol information; then, in the example, only when the third controlinformation includes the emergency indication information and theemergency call information, the request message can be sent.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and thefirst to the third optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 1, in aseventh optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, before the step of sending arequest message to a micro network node, the method may further include:

determining fourth control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata.

The request message carries the fourth control information, so thatafter determining that the fourth control information meets an accesscontrol rule specified by fifth control information that is carried in asecond configuration message sent by the macro network node, the micronetwork node sends the indication message to the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network nodeperforms access control. The UE determines the fourth controlinformation according to the uplink signaling or uplink data, and addsthe fourth control information to the request message; in this way, themicro network node can determine whether the fourth control informationmeets the access control rule specified by the fifth control informationthat is carried in the second configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, and when the fourth control information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the fifth control information, the micronetwork node sends the indication message to the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the specified access controlrule may vary in multiple situations. For example, the fifth controlinformation includes emergency indication information and emergency callinformation, and the specified access control rule indicates that, whenthe second control information includes one piece of information in thefourth control information, the indication message can be sent. Forexample, when the fourth control information only includes the emergencyindication information, the indication message can be sent.Alternatively, when the fourth control information includes theemergency indication information and a signaling identity, and the fifthcontrol information includes the emergency indication information, theindication message may also be sent. If the specified access controlrule is that the indication message can be sent only when theinformation in the fourth control information is completely identicalwith the information in the fifth control information; then, in theexample, only when the fourth control information includes the emergencyindication information and the emergency call information, theindication message can be sent.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and theseventh optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1, in an eighthoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the indication message carries thefourth control information, and the fourth control information isfurther used by the macro network node to perform access control on theuser equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the indication messagecarries the fourth control information, the macro network nodedetermines, according to the fourth control information, whether theuplink signaling or data meets the preset access control rule, and onlyafter the macro network node determines that the uplink signaling ordata meets the preset access control rule, the macro network node sendsthe uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network node andthe macro network node perform access control at the same time. When themicro network node determines that the fourth control information meetsthe access control rule specified by the fifth control information, themicro network node adds the fourth control information to the indicationmessage; and after determining that the fourth control information meetsthe access control rule, the macro network node sends the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and thefirst to the third optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 1, in aninth optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, before the step of sending arequest message to a micro network node, the method further includes:

receiving a third configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the third configuration message carries sixth control information;and

determining seventh control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data.

The sending an access request message to the micro network nodeincludes:

when the seventh control information meets an access control rulespecified by the sixth control information, sending the access requestmessage to the micro network node.

Correspondingly, both the request message and the indication messagefurther carry the seventh control information, and the seventh controlinformation is used by the macro network node to perform access controlon the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, only after determining thatthe uplink signaling or data meets the preset access control rule, themacro network node sends the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the macro networknode control access at the same time. For a relationship between thesixth control information and the seventh control information, referencemay be made to a relationship between the third control information andthe second control information for understanding.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 1 and thefirst to the third optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 1, in atenth optional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, before the step of sending arequest message to a micro network node, the method further includes:

receiving a fourth configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the fourth configuration message carries eighth controlinformation; and

determining ninth control information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata.

The sending an access request message to the micro network nodeincludes:

when the ninth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the eighth control information, sending the access requestmessage to the micro network node.

Correspondingly, the request message carries the ninth controlinformation, so that after determining that the ninth controlinformation meets a control rule specified by tenth control informationthat is carried in a fifth configuration message sent by the macronetwork node to the micro network node, the micro network node sends theindication message to the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the micro networknode control access at the same time. In the embodiment of the presentinvention, for a relationship between the eighth control information andthe ninth control information, reference may be made to the relationshipbetween the second control information and the third control informationfor understanding; and for a relationship between the ninth controlinformation and the tenth control information, reference may be made toa relationship between the fourth control information and the fifthcontrol information for understanding.

Optionally, based on the tenth optional embodiment, in an eleventhoptional embodiment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the indication message carries the ninth control information,and the ninth control information is further used by the macro networknode to perform access control on the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the process of performing,by the macro network node, access control is as follows: the macronetwork node determines, according to the ninth control information,whether the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access controlrule, and after determining that the uplink signaling or uplink datameets the access control rule, the macro network node sends the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE, the macro networknode, and the micro network node perform access control at the sametime. When the indication message carries the ninth control information,when determining that the ninth control information meets the accesscontrol rule, the macro network node determines that it is required toallocate the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

Optionally, in the foregoing multiple optional embodiments, the firstcontrol information, the second control information, the third controlinformation, the fourth control information, the fifth controlinformation, the sixth control information, the seventh controlinformation, the eighth control information, the ninth controlinformation, and the tenth control information each include at least oneof emergency indication information, service type information, datainformation or signaling information, quality of service (QoS)information, an identity of a radio bearer (RB), an identity of alogical channel (LCH), and an identity of a logical channel group towhich the logical channel used by the radio bearer belongs.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first controlinformation, the second control information, the third controlinformation, the fourth control information, the fifth controlinformation, the sixth control information, the seventh controlinformation, the eighth control information, the ninth controlinformation, and the tenth control information each may be aninformation set, and each set may include at least one informationparameter.

Referring to FIG. 2, a communication method according to an embodimentof the present invention includes:

201: A macro network node receives an indication message that is sent bya micro network node after the micro network node receives a requestmessage sent by a user equipment.

202: The macro network node sends an uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment according to the indication message, so that the userequipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro networknode according to the uplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, a macro network nodereceives an indication message that is sent by a micro network nodeafter the micro network node receives a request message sent by a userequipment; and sends an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentaccording to the indication message, so that the user equipment sendsuplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network node according tothe uplink resource (UG). Compared with the prior art where no micronetwork node participates and a UE directly uses a contention-basedrandom access procedure to perform access, the solution provided by theembodiment of the present invention can enable a UE to more rapidlyaccess a network, thereby reducing an access delay of the UE.

During implementation of the present invention, none of the userequipment, the macro network node, and the micro network node controlssending, by the UE, the uplink data or uplink signaling; as long as theuser initiates an access request, and after the macro network nodereceives an indication from the micro network node, the macro networknode allocates the uplink resource to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 2, in a firstoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the sending the uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment according to the indication message includes:

initiating a non-contention-based random access procedure to the userequipment according to the indication message, and sending a firsttiming advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentin the non-contention-based random access procedure, so that the userequipment sends the uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro networknode according to the first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource(UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, no matter whether a TAexists in the UE or not, the macro network node can initiate thenon-contention-based random access procedure, so that the UE obtains theUG and the TA used for sending the uplink signaling or uplink data.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 2, in a secondoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the sending the uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment includes:

sending the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment through aphysical downlink control channel (PDCCH) according to the indicationmessage, so that the user equipment sends, after reading an existingsecond timing advance (TA), uplink signaling or uplink data to the macronetwork node according to the second timing advance (TA) and the uplinkresource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, when determining that a TAhas existed in the UE, the macro network node may not need to initiatethe contention-based random access procedure, but only needs to send theuplink resource (UG) to the user equipment through the physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH); then, after reading the existing second timingadvance (TA), the UE may send uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the second timing advance (TA) and theuplink resource (UG).

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and the first or the second optionalembodiment corresponding to FIG. 2, in a third optional embodiment ofthe communication method according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, both the request message and the indication message carrysize information of the uplink signaling or uplink data to be sent.

Before the sending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, themethod may further include:

determining the uplink resource (UG) according to the size informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the indication messagecarries the size information of the uplink signaling or uplink data, themacro network node may determine, according to the size information ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data, the UG required for the sizeinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data. Therefore, comparedwith the UG randomly allocated in the foregoing embodiment, the UGallocated in the embodiment of the present invention exactly adapts tothe uplink signaling or uplink data to be sent. In this way, it isavoided that the allocated uplink resource is inadequate to send theuplink signaling or uplink data and that excessive UGs are allocated tocause a waste of UGs.

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and any one of the first to the thirdoptional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 2, in a fourth optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention:

both the request message and the indication message further carry firstcontrol information, determined by the user equipment, of the uplinksignaling or uplink data; and before the step of sending an uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment, the method further includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the firstcontrol information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an access control process isas follows: only after determining, according to the first controlinformation, that the uplink signaling or data meets an access controlrule, the macro network node sends the uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodeperforms access control. When determining, according to the firstcontrol information carried in the indication message, that the firstcontrol information meets an access control rule, the macro network nodeallocates the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, where theaccess control rule may be, for example, as follows: allocating anuplink resource for an emergency call, allocating an uplink resource forsignaling, allocating an uplink resource for a high-priority service, orthe like. For example, when the first control information is anemergency call, the macro network node determines that the emergencycall meets the access control rule, and then determines that it isrequired to allocate the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and any one of the first to the thirdoptional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 2, in a fifth optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, before the step of receiving the indicationmessage, the method further includes:

sending a first configuration message to the user equipment, where thefirst configuration message carries an uplink synchronization flagand/or second control information, and the uplink synchronization flagis used for instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timingadvance group (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macronetwork node belongs expires, the user equipment to still maintaincontinuous running of a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled bythe micro network node belongs.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink synchronizationflag is used for notifying that, when the time alignment timer (TAT) ofthe timing advance group (TAG) to which the macro cell belongs expires,the UE still can send the request message to the micro cell controlledby the micro network node.

Optionally, based on the fifth optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.2, in a sixth optional embodiment of the communication method accordingto the embodiment of the present invention, the first configurationmessage carries the second control information, so that the userequipment sends, after determining third control information of theuplink signaling or uplink data, the request message to the micronetwork node when the third control information meets an access controlrule specified by the second control information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE performs accesscontrol. For a relationship between the second control information andthe third control information, reference may be made to the relationshipbetween the second control information and the third control informationin the UE-side embodiment for understanding.

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and any one of the first to the thirdoptional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 2, in a seventh optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, the request message carries fourth controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data.

Before the step of receiving the indication message, the method furtherincludes:

sending a second configuration message to the micro network node, wherethe second configuration message carries fifth control information, sothat after determining whether the fourth control information meets anaccess control rule specified by the fifth control information, themicro network node sends the indication message to the macro networknode.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network nodeperforms access control. For a relationship between the fourth controlinformation and the fifth control information, reference may be made tothe relationship between the fourth control information and the fifthcontrol information in the UE-side embodiment for understanding.

Optionally, based on the seventh optional embodiment corresponding toFIG. 2, in an eighth optional embodiment of the communication methodaccording to the embodiment of the present invention, the indicationmessage carries the fourth control information; and before the step ofsending an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, the methodfurther includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the fourthcontrol information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an access control process isas follows: only after determining, according to the fourth controlinformation, that the uplink signaling or data meets an access controlrule, the macro network node sends the uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network node andthe macro network node perform access control at the same time.

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and any one of the first to the thirdoptional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 2, in a ninth optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, before the step of receiving the indicationmessage, the method further includes:

sending a third configuration message to the user equipment, where thethird configuration message carries sixth control information, so thatafter determining that seventh control information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data meets an access control rule specified by thesixth control information, the user equipment sends the access requestmessage to the micro network node.

Correspondingly, both the request message and the indication messagefurther carry the seventh control information, and before the step ofsending the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, the methodfurther includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the seventhcontrol information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the access control processof the macro network node is as follows: the macro network nodedetermines, according to the seventh control information, whether theuplink signaling or data meets an access control rule, and only afterdetermining that the uplink signaling or data meets the access controlrule, the macro network node sends the uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the macro networknode perform access control at the same time. For a relationship betweenthe seventh control information and the sixth control information,reference may be made to the relationship between the seventh controlinformation and the sixth control information in the UE-side embodimentfor understanding.

Optionally, based on FIG. 2 and any one of the first to the thirdoptional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 2, in a tenth optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, before the step of receiving the indicationmessage, the method further includes:

sending a fourth configuration message to the user equipment, where thefourth configuration message carries eighth control information, so thatafter determining that ninth control information of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by the eighthcontrol information, the user equipment sends the access request messageto the micro network node, where

correspondingly, the request message carries the ninth controlinformation; and

sending a fifth configuration message to the micro network node, wherethe fifth configuration message carries tenth control information, sothat after determining that the ninth control information meets anaccess control rule specified by the tenth control information, themicro network node sends the indication message to the macro networknode.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the micro networknode perform access control at the same time. For a relationship betweenthe ninth control information and the eighth control information and arelationship between the ninth control information and the tenth controlinformation, reference may be made to the relationship between the ninthcontrol information and the eighth control information and therelationship between the ninth control information and the tenth controlinformation in the UE-side embodiment for understanding.

Optionally, based on the tenth optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.2, in an eleventh optional embodiment according to the embodiment of thepresent invention, the indication message carries the ninth controlinformation; and before the step of sending an uplink resource (UG) tothe user equipment, the method further includes:

performing access control on the user equipment according to the ninthcontrol information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an access control process isas follows: the macro network node determines, according to the ninthcontrol information, whether the uplink signaling or data meets anaccess control rule, and only after determining that the uplinksignaling or data meets the access control rule, the macro network nodesends the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE, the macro networknode, and the micro network node perform access control at the sametime.

Optionally, in the foregoing multiple optional embodiments correspondingto FIG. 2, the first control information, the second controlinformation, the third control information, the fourth controlinformation, the fifth control information, the sixth controlinformation, the seventh control information, the eighth controlinformation, the ninth control information, and the tenth controlinformation each include at least one of emergency indicationinformation, service type information, data information or signalinginformation, quality of service (QoS) information, an identity of aradio bearer (RB), an identity of a logical channel (LCH), and anidentity of a logical channel group to which the logical channel used bythe radio bearer belongs.

Referring to FIG. 3, a communication method according to an embodimentof the present invention includes:

301: A micro network node receives a request message sent by a userequipment.

302: The micro network node sends an indication message to a macronetwork node according to the request message, so that the macro networknode sends an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment, and then theuser equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according to theuplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, a micro network nodereceives a request message sent by a user equipment; and sends anindication message to a macro network node according to the requestmessage, so that the macro network node sends an uplink resource (UG) tothe user equipment, and then the user equipment sends uplink signalingor uplink data according to the uplink resource (UG). Compared with theprior art where no micro network node participates and a UE directlyuses a contention-based random access procedure to perform access, thesolution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can enablea UE to more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an access delayof the UE.

During implementation of the present invention, none of the userequipment, the macro network node, and the micro network node controlssending, by the UE, the uplink data or uplink signaling; as long as theuser initiates an access request, and after the macro network nodereceives an indication from the micro network node, the macro networknode allocates the uplink resource to the user equipment.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 3, in a firstoptional embodiment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, both the request message and the indication message carryfirst control information, determined by the user equipment, of theuplink signaling or uplink data, and the first control information isused by the macro network node to perform access control on the userequipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodeperforms access control as follows: the macro network node determines,according to the first control information, whether the uplink signalingor data meets an access control rule, and only after determining thatthe uplink signaling or data meets the access control rule, the macronetwork node allocates the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodeperforms access control.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 3, in a secondoptional embodiment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the request message carries fourth control information,determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata; and before the step of receiving a request message sent by a userequipment, the method further includes:

receiving a second configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the second configuration message carries fifth controlinformation.

Correspondingly, the sending an indication message to a macro networknode includes:

when the fourth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the fifth control information, sending the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network nodeperforms access control.

Optionally, based on the second optional embodiment corresponding toFIG. 3, in a third optional embodiment according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, the indication message further carries the fourthcontrol information, and the fourth control information is further usedby the macro network node to perform access control on the userequipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodeperforms access control as follows: the macro network node determines,according to the fourth control information, whether the uplinksignaling or uplink data meets an access control rule, and only afterdetermining that the uplink signaling or uplink data meets the accesscontrol rule, the macro network node sends the uplink resource (UG) tothe user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the micro network node andthe macro network node perform access control at the same time.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 3, in a fourthoptional embodiment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the receiving a request message sent by a user equipmentincludes:

when seventh control information, determined by the user equipment, ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rulespecified by sixth control information that is carried in a thirdconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, receiving anaccess request message sent by the user equipment, where the accessrequest message carries the seventh control information, where

the indication message carries the seventh control information, and theseventh control information is used by the macro network node to performaccess control on the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the process of performing,by the macro network node, access control is as follows: the macronetwork node determines, according to the seventh control information,whether the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access controlrule, and when determining that the uplink signaling or uplink datameets the access control rule, the macro network node sends the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the macro networknode perform access control at the same time.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 3, in a fifthoptional embodiment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the receiving a request message sent by a user equipmentincludes:

when ninth control information, determined by the user equipment, of theuplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rule specifiedby eighth control information that is carried in a fourth configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, receiving an access requestmessage sent by the user equipment, where the access request messagecarries the ninth control information.

Before the step of receiving a request message sent by a user equipment,the method further includes:

receiving a fifth configuration message sent by the macro network node,where the fifth configuration message carries tenth control information.

Correspondingly, the sending an indication message to a macro networknode includes:

when the ninth control information meets an access control rulespecified by the tenth control information, sending the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE and the micro networknode perform access control at the same time.

Optionally, based on the fifth optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.3, in a sixth optional embodiment according to the embodiment of thepresent invention, the indication message carries the ninth controlinformation, and the ninth control information is further used by themacro network node to perform access control on the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the process of performing,by the macro network node, access control is as follows: the macronetwork node determines, according to the ninth control information,whether the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access controlrule, and after determining that the uplink signaling or uplink datameets the access control rule, the macro network node sends the uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE, the micro networknode, and the macro network node perform access control at the sametime.

Optionally, based on the multiple embodiments corresponding to FIG. 3,the first control information, the fourth control information, the fifthcontrol information, the sixth control information, the seventh controlinformation, the eighth control information, the ninth controlinformation, and the tenth control information each include at least oneof emergency indication information, service type information, datainformation or signaling information, quality of service (QoS)information, an identity of a radio bearer (RB), an identity of alogical channel (LCH), and an identity of a logical channel group towhich the logical channel used by the radio bearer belongs.

Referring to FIG. 4, a communication method according to an embodimentof the present invention includes:

401: A user equipment receives configuration information sent by a macronetwork node.

The configuration information in the embodiment of the present inventionmay be carried in a configuration message for transmission.

402: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to a micronetwork node and/or the macro network node according to theconfiguration information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a user equipment receivesconfiguration information sent by a macro network node, and sends uplinksignaling or uplink data to a micro network node and/or the macronetwork node according to the configuration information. Compared withthe prior art where no micro network node participates and a UE directlyuses a contention-based random access procedure to perform access, thesolution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can enablea UE to more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an access delayof the UE.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 4, in a firstoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the method may further include:

receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode and/or the micro network node; and

when the downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode and the micro network node is received, deleting duplicatesignaling or data in the downlink signaling or downlink data sent by themacro network node and in the downlink signaling or downlink data sentby the micro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the user equipmentsimultaneously receives the downlink signaling or downlink data sent bythe macro network node and the micro network node, the user equipmentneeds to delete the duplicate signaling or data and only reserve onecopy of the signaling or data.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 4 and thefirst optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 4, in a second optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, the configuration information includes anidentity of a micro cell controlled by the micro network node and anidentity of a radio bearer (RB) of the user equipment.

The sending uplink signaling or uplink data to a micro network nodeaccording to the configuration information includes:

sending, to the micro network node, the uplink signaling or uplink datatransmitted on a radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the uplink signaling or uplink data is sent by using a defaultlogical channel and through a micro cell corresponding to the identityof the micro cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the configurationinformation includes the identity of the micro cell controlled by themicro network node and the identity of the radio bearer (RB) of the userequipment, the uplink signaling or uplink data is transmitted on adefault logical channel corresponding to the radio bearer.

Optionally, based on the second optional embodiment corresponding toFIG. 4, in a third optional embodiment of the communication methodaccording to the embodiment of the present invention, when theconfiguration information further includes the identity of the logicalchannel (LCH), the sending uplink signaling or uplink data to a micronetwork node according to the configuration information includes:

sending, to the micro network node, the uplink signaling or uplink datatransmitted on the radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the uplink signaling or uplink data is sent by using a logicalchannel corresponding to the identity of the LCH and through the microcell corresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the configurationinformation further includes the identity of the logical channel (LCH),the uplink signaling or uplink data is sent to the micro cellcorresponding to the identity of the micro cell through the logicalchannel corresponding to the identity of the LCH.

Optionally, based on the second or the third optional embodimentcorresponding to FIG. 4, in a fourth optional embodiment of thecommunication method according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, when the configuration information further includes an uplinkflag, the receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by themacro network node and/or the micro network node includes:

receiving downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro networknode.

The uplink flag is used for indicating that uplink signaling or uplinkdata can be sent to the macro network node and the micro network node inan uplink direction, but in a downlink direction, signaling or data canonly be received from the macro network node.

Optionally, based on the second, third, or fourth optional embodimentcorresponding to FIG. 4, in a fifth optional embodiment of thecommunication method according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the configuration information further includes an uplinksynchronization flag, where the uplink synchronization flag is used forinstructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 4 and any oneof the first to the fifth optional embodiments corresponding to FIG. 4,in a sixth optional embodiment of the communication method according tothe embodiment of the present invention,

the uplink signaling is an uplink radio resource control (RRC) message,and the downlink signaling is a downlink radio resource control (RRC)message.

Optionally, based on the sixth optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.4, in a seventh optional embodiment of the communication methodaccording to the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink RRCmessage includes an uplink measurement report (Measurement Report, MR)message and an uplink information transfer (Uplink Information Transfer,UIT) message, and the downlink RRC message includes a handover commandmessage and a downlink information transfer message.

Referring to FIG. 5, a communication method according to an embodimentof the present invention includes:

501: A macro network node sends configuration information to a userequipment, so that the user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplinkdata to a micro network node and/or the macro network node according tothe configuration information.

502: The macro network node receives the uplink signaling or uplink datathat is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by the micro networknode, and/or receives the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by theuser equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a macro network node sendsconfiguration information to a user equipment, so that the userequipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to a micro network nodeand/or the macro network node according to the configurationinformation; and the macro network node receives uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node, and/or, receives the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment. Compared with the prior art where no micronetwork node participates and a UE directly uses a contention-basedrandom access procedure to perform access, the solution provided by theembodiment of the present invention can enable a UE to more rapidlyaccess a network, thereby reducing an access delay of the UE.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 5, in a firstoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, when the uplink signaling or uplinkdata that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by the micronetwork node is received and the uplink signaling or uplink data sent bythe user equipment is received, duplicate signaling or data in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment and in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro network node isdeleted.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the macro network nodesimultaneously receives the signaling or data sent by the UE and themicro network node, the macro network node needs to delete the duplicatesignaling or data and only reserve one copy of the signaling or data.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 5 and a firstoptional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 5, in a second optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, the method may further include:

sending a seventh configuration message to the micro network node, wherethe seventh configuration message carries another configurationinformation, so that the micro network node forwards downlink signalingor downlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information; and

sending the downlink signaling or downlink data to the micro networknode.

Optionally, based on the second optional embodiment corresponding toFIG. 5, in a third optional embodiment of the communication methodaccording to the embodiment of the present invention, the uplinksignaling is an uplink radio resource control (RRC) message, and thedownlink signaling is a downlink radio resource control (RRC) message.

Optionally, based on the third optional embodiment corresponding to FIG.5, in a fourth optional embodiment of the communication method accordingto the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink RRC messageincludes an uplink measurement report message and an uplink informationtransfer message, and the downlink RRC message includes a handovercommand message and a downlink information transfer message.

Referring to FIG. 6, an embodiment of a communication method accordingto an embodiment of the present invention includes:

601: A micro network node receives another configuration informationsent by a macro network node.

602: The micro network node receives downlink signaling or downlink datasent by the macro network node.

603: The micro network node forwards the downlink signaling or downlinkdata to a user equipment according to the another configurationinformation.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a micro network nodereceives another configuration information sent by a macro network node,and receives downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macronetwork node; and the micro network node forwards the downlink signalingor downlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information. Compared with the prior art where no micronetwork node participates and a UE directly uses a contention-basedrandom access procedure to perform access, the solution provided by theembodiment of the present invention can enable a UE to more rapidlyaccess a network, thereby reducing an access delay of the UE.

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 6, in a firstoptional embodiment of the communication method according to theembodiment of the present invention, the another configurationinformation includes an identity of the user equipment and an identityof a radio bearer (RB) of the user equipment.

The forwarding the downlink signaling or downlink data to the userequipment according to the another configuration information includes:

sending, to the user equipment, the downlink signaling or downlink datatransmitted on a radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the downlink signaling or downlink data is sent by using a defaultlogical channel and through a micro cell corresponding to an identity ofthe micro cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when no identity of an LCHexists in the another configuration information, the sent uplinksignaling or uplink data is received on the default logical channelcorresponding to a radio bearer corresponding to the identity of theradio bearer (RB).

Optionally, based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 6 and thefirst optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 6, in a second optionalembodiment of the communication method according to the embodiment ofthe present invention, the another configuration information furtherincludes the identity of the logical channel (LCH); and the forwardingthe downlink signaling or downlink data to the user equipment accordingto the another configuration information includes:

sending, to the user equipment, the downlink signaling or downlink datatransmitted on the radio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB,where the downlink signaling or downlink data is sent by using a logicalchannel corresponding to the identity of the LCH and through the microcell corresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the anotherconfiguration information further includes the identity of the logicalchannel (LCH), the uplink signaling or uplink data is received in thelogical channel corresponding to the identity of the LCH.

The downlink signaling is a downlink radio resource control (RRC)message. The downlink RRC message includes a handover command messageand a downlink information transfer message.

For ease of understanding, several application scenarios are used asexamples in the following to elaborate a communication process in theembodiment of the present invention:

Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 shows a communication process when none of auser equipment, a macro network node, and a micro network node performsaccess control, and the communication process includes:

S110: The user equipment sends a request message to the micro networknode.

The request message in the embodiment of the present invention may be anaccess request message, a scheduling request message, a connectionrequest message, a request message for sending new data or signaling, ora radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) message; and mayalso be a physical signal or a control information element.

S115: The micro network node sends an indication message to the macronetwork node.

S120: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains an uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are allocated by the macro network node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the non-contention-basedrandom access procedure is defined in detail in the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP)protocol TS 36.321, and specifically includes the following: the macronetwork node sends a non-contention-based random access command to theUE, the UE responds to the non-contention-based random access commandand sends a random access request to the macro network node, and themacro network node sends a random access response to the UE, where therandom access response includes the uplink resource (UG) and the timingadvance (Time Advance, TA) which are allocated.

S125: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

In this step, the user equipment may read an existing TA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S120 and step S125. If step S120is executed, step S125 is not executed; and if step S125 is executed,step S120 is not executed.

S130: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

In this way, the UE can obtain an uplink sending time according to theTA, and sends the uplink signaling or uplink data at the uplink sendingtime by using the UG.

S135: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S135 is optional.

In the embodiment of the present invention, neither the request messagenor the indication message carries any information; in this case, themacro network node randomly allocates the UG to the user equipment forthe uplink signaling or uplink data to be sent. If the request messageand the indication message both carry size information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data, the macro network node allocates anappropriate UG to the user equipment according to the size information,so as to avoid resource shortage or resource waste in randomlyallocating the UG.

Referring to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 shows a situation where only a macro networknode performs access control. A communication process in the embodimentof the present invention includes:

S200: A user equipment determines first control information of uplinksignaling or uplink data to be sent.

In this step, the first control information may be determined frommultiple aspects such as an emergency situation, a service type, whetherit is data information or signaling information, and quality of service;specifically, a rule for determining the first control information maybe preset.

For example, when the UE is about to send signaling of an emergencycall, the UE may determine that the first control information includes:emergency indication information, a service type being an emergency callservice, or what is to be sent being signaling.

The first control information may be at least one of emergencyindication information, service type information, data/signalinginformation, quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) information,an identity of a radio bearer (Radio Bearer, RB), an identity of alogical channel (Logical CHannel, LCH), and an identity of a logicalchannel group to which the logical channel used by the radio bearerbelongs.

The emergency indication information indicates whether the data orsignaling that needs to be sent by the UE is emergent.

Specifically, the emergency indication may be expressed by a bit. Whenthe bit is 1, it indicates that the data or signaling is emergent; andwhen the bit is 0, it indicates that the data or signaling is notemergent, and vice versa.

The service type indicates a type of a service to be initiated by theUE, and the information is specifically any one of the following: anemergency call, a high-priority service, a delay-insensitive service,and the like.

The data/signaling information indicates whether data or signaling is tobe sent by the UE.

The quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) information includes aQoS parameter of a service to which the uplink signaling or uplink datato be sent by the UE belongs, and may specifically include a QoS classidentifier (QoS Class Identifier, QCI), an allocation and retentionpriority (Allocation and Retention Priority, ARP), and the like.

The identity of the radio bearer (Radio Bearer, RB), or the identity ofthe logical channel (Logical CHannel, LCH) used by the RB, or theidentity of the LCH group to which the LCH used by the RB belongsindicates one or more established RBs, or one or more established LCHswhich the uplink data or signaling to be sent by the UE is from.

S205: The user equipment sends a request message to the micro networknode, where the request message carries the first control information.

S210: The micro network node sends an indication message to the macronetwork node, where the indication message carries the first controlinformation.

S215: The macro network node determines, according to the first controlinformation, an uplink resource (UG) to be sent to the user equipment.

In step S215, the macro network node first determines whether the firstcontrol information meets an access control rule, and when the firstcontrol information meets the access control rule, determines that it isrequired to allocate the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment,where the access control rule is preset and stored in the macro networknode by the system.

S220: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains the uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are allocated by the macro network node.

In step S220, the non-contention-based random access procedure is thesame as that in step S120, so the details are not described hereinagain.

S225: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

In this step, the UE may read an existing TA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S220 and step S225. If step S220is executed, step S225 is not executed; and if step S225 is executed,step S220 is not executed.

S230: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S235: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S235 is an optional step.

Referring to FIG. 9, FIG. 9 shows a situation where only a userequipment performs access control. A communication process in theembodiment of the present invention includes:

S300: A macro network node sends a first configuration message to theuser equipment, where the first configuration message carries secondcontrol information.

S305: The user equipment determines third control information of uplinksignaling or uplink data.

S310: When the third control information meets an access control rulespecified by the second control information, execute step S315.

For step S305 and step S310, specifically, the user equipment generatesthe third control information according to the second controlinformation, and determines, according to whether a value of the thirdcontrol information and a value of the second control information areidentical, whether the third control information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the second control information. For example,when the second control information includes emergency indicationinformation, and the value of the emergency indication information is“emergency”, the third control information determined by the userequipment is emergency indication information of the uplink signaling oruplink data; if the value of the emergency indication information of theuplink signaling or uplink data is also “emergency”, the user equipmentmay send a request message. For another example, when the second controlinformation includes service type information and data/signalinginformation, and the value of the service type information is an“emergency call” and the value of the data/signaling information is“signaling”, the third control information determined by the userequipment is service type information and data/signaling information ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data; when the value of the service typeinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data is an “emergencycall” or the value of the data/signaling information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data is “signaling”, the user equipment may send therequest message. For still another example, when the second controlinformation includes an identity of a radio bearer (RB), and values ofthe identity of the radio bearer (RB) are “SRB 1” and “DRB 2”, the thirdcontrol information determined by the user equipment is the identity ofthe radio bearer (RB) of the uplink signaling or uplink data; when thevalue of the identity of the radio bearer (RB) of the uplink signalingor uplink data is “SRB 1” or “DRB 2”, the user equipment may send therequest message. For yet another example, when the second controlinformation includes QoS information, the QoS information includes a QCIand an ARP, and a value of the QCI is “1” and a value of the ARP is “2”,the third control information determined by the user equipment is theQoS information of the uplink signaling or uplink data; when the valueof the QCI in the QoS information of the uplink signaling or uplink datais “1” and the value of the ARP is “2”, the user equipment may send therequest message.

S315: Send the request message to the micro network node.

S320: The micro network node sends an indication message to the macronetwork node.

S325: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains an uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are allocated by the macro network node.

S330: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

The premise of this step is that the user equipment may read an existingTA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S325 and step S330. If step S325is executed, step S330 is not executed; and if step S330 is executed,step S325 is not executed.

S335: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S340: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S340 is an optional step.

In the embodiment of the present invention, neither of the requestmessage and the indication message carries control information, and bothof them may carry the size information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata.

Referring to FIG. 10, FIG. 10 shows a situation where only a micronetwork node performs access control. A communication process in theembodiment of the present invention includes:

S400: A macro network node sends a second configuration message to themicro network node, where the second configuration message carries fifthcontrol information.

S405: The user equipment determines fourth control information of theuplink signaling or uplink data.

A process of determining the fourth control information in this step isbasically the same as the process of determining the first controlinformation in step S200, and reference may be made to the process ofdetermining the first control information in step S200 forunderstanding.

S410: The user equipment sends a request message to the micro networknode, where the request message carries the fourth control information.

S415: The micro network node determines whether the fourth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the fifth controlinformation, and when the fourth control information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the fifth control information, the micronetwork node determines that it is required to send an indicationmessage to the macro network node.

A process of determining that the fourth information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the fifth control information in this step isbasically the same as the process of determining that the thirdinformation meets the access control rule specified by the secondcontrol information in step S310, and reference may be made to theprocess in step S310 for understanding.

S420: The micro network node sends an indication message to the macronetwork node.

S425: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains an uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are allocated by the macro network node.

S430: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

The premise of this step is that the UE may read an existing TA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S425 and step S430. If step S425is executed, step S430 is not executed; and if step S430 is executed,step S425 is not executed.

S435: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S440: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S440 is an optional step.

In the embodiment of the present invention, only the micro network nodeperforms access control. The indication message in step S420 does notcarry any control information, and when the indication message in stepS420 carries the fourth control information, the communication processfurther includes:

Step S421: The macro network node determines, according to the fourthcontrol information, that it is required to allocate the uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment.

In this way, in the embodiment of the communication process includingstep S421, the macro network node and the micro network node performaccess control at the same time.

Referring to FIG. 11, FIG. 11 shows a situation where a user equipmentand a macro network node perform access control at the same time. Acommunication process in the embodiment of the present inventionincludes:

S500: The macro network node sends a third configuration message to theuser equipment, where the third configuration message carries sixthcontrol information.

S505: The user equipment determines seventh control information ofuplink signaling or uplink data to be sent.

S510: After the user equipment determines that the seventh controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the sixth controlinformation, execute step S515.

A process of determining the seventh control information in theembodiment of the present invention is basically the same as the processof determining the third control information in step S305, and a processof determining that the seventh control information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the sixth control information in theembodiment of the present invention is basically the same as the processof determining that the third control information meets the accesscontrol rule specified by the second control information in step S310,and reference may be made to processes of the corresponding stepsseparately for understanding.

S515: Send the request message to the micro network node, where therequest message carries the seventh control information.

S520: The micro network node sends an indication message to the macronetwork node, where the indication message carries the seventh controlinformation.

S525: The macro network node determines that the seventh controlinformation meets an access control rule.

S530: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains an uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are allocated by the macro network node.

S535: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

The premise of this step is that the UE may read an existing TA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S530 and step S535. If step S530is executed, step S535 is not executed; and if step S535 is executed,step S530 is not executed.

S540: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S545: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S545 is an optional step.

Referring to FIG. 12, FIG. 12 shows a situation where a user equipmentand a micro network node perform access control at the same time. Acommunication process in the embodiment of the present inventionincludes:

S600: A macro network node sends a fourth configuration message to theuser equipment, where the fourth configuration message carries eighthcontrol information.

S605: The macro network node sends a fifth configuration message to themicro network node, where the fifth configuration message carries tenthcontrol information.

The sequence of step S600 and step S605 is not limited.

S610: The user equipment determines ninth control information of uplinksignaling or uplink data to be sent.

S615: When the user equipment determines that the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, execute step S620. In this step, for a relationship betweenthe eighth control information and the ninth control information,reference may be made to the relationship between the second controlinformation and the third control information in the foregoingembodiment for understanding, and the details are not described hereinagain.

S620: Send the request message to the micro network node, where therequest message carries the ninth control information.

S625: After the micro network node determines that the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the tenth controlinformation, execute step S630.

S630: Send the indication message to the macro network node.

S635: The macro network node initiates a non-contention-based randomaccess procedure, so that the UE obtains an uplink resource (UG) and aTA that are sent by the macro network node.

S640: The user equipment receives, through a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro networknode.

The premise of this step is that the UE may read an existing TA.

It is unnecessary to execute both step S635 and step S640. If step S635is executed, step S640 is not executed; and if step S640 is executed,step S635 is not executed.

S645: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S650: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

Step S640 is an optional step.

The indication message in step S630 in the embodiment corresponding toFIG. 12 does not carry any control information, and when the indicationmessage in step S630 carries the ninth control information, thecommunication process further includes:

Step S631: The macro network node determines that the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule.

When the embodiment includes step S631, it indicates that the userequipment, the macro network node, and the micro network node performaccess control at the same time.

In embodiments of the foregoing multiple application scenarios, thefirst control information, the second control information, the thirdcontrol information, the fourth control information, the fifth controlinformation, the sixth control information, the seventh controlinformation, the eighth control information, the ninth controlinformation, and the tenth control information each include at least oneof emergency indication information, service type information,data/signaling information, quality of service (QoS) information, anidentity of a radio bearer (RB), an identity of a logical channel (LCH),and an identity of a logical channel group to which the logical channelused by the radio bearer belongs.

The emergency indication information indicates whether the data orsignaling that needs to be sent by the UE is emergent.

Specifically, the emergency indication may be expressed by a bit. Whenthe bit is 1, it indicates that the data or signaling is emergent; andwhen the bit is 0, it indicates that the data or signaling is notemergent, and vice versa.

The service type indicates a type of a service to be initiated by theUE, and the information may be specifically any one of the following: anemergency call, a high-priority service, a delay-insensitive service,and the like.

The data/signaling information indicates whether data or signaling is tobe sent by the UE.

The quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) information includes aQoS parameter of a service to which the data or signaling to be sent bythe UE belongs, and may specifically include a QoS class identifier (QoSClass Identifier, QCI), an allocation and retention priority (Allocationand Retention Priority, ARP), and the like.

The identity of the radio bearer (Radio Bearer, RB), or the identity ofthe logical channel (Logical CHannel, LCH) used by the RB, or theidentity of the LCH group to which the LCH used by the RB belongsindicates one or more established RBs, or one or more established LCHswhich the uplink data or signaling to be sent by the UE is from.

Moreover, the access request message and the indication message in theforegoing multiple embodiments may both carry the size information ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data. In this way, in each applicationscenario, the macro network node needs to determine, according to thesize information, the size of the UG to be allocated to the userequipment for the uplink signaling or uplink data to be sent.

In the multiple embodiments of the present invention, the firstconfiguration message may carry an uplink synchronization flag, wherethe uplink synchronization flag is used for instructing, after a timealignment timer (TAT) of a timing advance group (TAG) to which a macrocell controlled by the macro network node belongs expires, the userequipment to still maintain continuous running of a TAT of a TAG towhich a micro cell controlled by the micro network node belongs.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the TAT of the macrocell expires, the user equipment further needs to send uplink data oruplink signaling to the macro network node. In the foregoing multipleembodiments, the UG and the TA can be allocated to the user equipmentonly by the macro network node by initiating a non-contention-basedrandom access procedure. If the user equipment does not have a resourcefor sending a scheduling request (Scheduling Request, SR) on the macrocell, and needs to send uplink signaling or uplink data to the macronetwork node, and moreover, the user equipment fails to send a dynamicscheduling request (Dynamic Scheduling Request, DSR) on the macro cell,that is, a quantity of times that the user equipment continuously sendsan SR exceeds a predetermined maximum quantity of times, the macronetwork node may send the UG to the user equipment through the physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH). In these two situations, since a TAhas existed in the user equipment, and the user equipment does not needto depend on the non-contention-based random access procedure to obtaina TA.

Referring to FIG. 13, FIG. 13 shows another application scenarioembodiment of a communication method according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, and the method includes:

S700: A macro network node sends a sixth configuration message to a userequipment, where the sixth configuration message carries configurationinformation.

The configuration information includes an identity of a micro cellcontrolled by a micro network node and an identity of a radio bearer(RB) of the user equipment.

The configuration information may further include any one or more of anidentity of a logical channel (LCH), an uplink flag, configurationrelated to an RLC (Radio Link Control), and configuration related to theLCH.

S705: The macro network node sends a seventh configuration message tothe micro network node, where the seventh configuration message carriesanother configuration information.

The another configuration information includes an identity of the userequipment and the identity of the radio bearer (RB) of the userequipment.

The another configuration information may further include any one ormore of the identity of the logical channel (LCH), the configurationrelated to the RLC (Radio Link Control), and the configuration relatedto the LCH.

The execution sequence of step S700 and step S705 is not limited.

S710: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themicro network node.

Specifically, the user equipment sends, to the micro network node,uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on the radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the radio bearer (RB), where the uplinksignaling or uplink data is sent through a micro cell corresponding tothe identity of the micro cell. Optionally, the user equipment sends theuplink signaling or uplink data by using the LCH corresponding to theidentity of the LCH, the configuration related to the RLC and/or theconfiguration related to the LCH.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink signaling may bean unlink radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) message,and the uplink RRC message includes a measurement report (MeasurementReport, MR) message, an uplink information transfer (Uplink InformationTransfer, UIT) message, and the like.

S715: The user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node.

S720: The micro network node forwards, to the macro network node, theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, both step S710 and step S715may be executed, or only one of the steps may be executed. When the twosteps are both executed, step S725 needs to be further executed; andwhen one of the steps is executed, step S725 does not need to beexecuted. When step S710 is executed, step S720 needs to be furtherexecuted; and when step S710 is not executed, step S720 does not need tobe executed.

S725: The macro network node deletes duplicate signaling or data in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment and in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro network node.

S730: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the downlink signaling maybe a downlink radio resource control (RRC) message, and the downlink RRCmessage includes a handover command (Handover Command, HC) message, adownlink information transfer (Downlink Information Transfer, DIT)message, and the like.

S735: The macro network node sends downlink signaling or downlink datato the micro network node.

S740: The micro network node forwards, to the user equipment, thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node.

Specifically, the micro network node sends, to the user equipment,downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on the radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the radio bearer (RB), where thedownlink signaling or downlink data is sent through a micro cellcorresponding to the identity of the micro cell. Optionally, the micronetwork node sends the downlink signaling or downlink data by using theLCH corresponding to the identity of the LCH, the configuration relatedto the RLC and/or the configuration related to the LCH.

In the embodiment of the present invention, both step S730 and step S735may be executed, or only one of the steps may be executed. When the twosteps are both executed, step S740 needs to be further executed; andwhen one of the steps is executed, step S740 does not need to beexecuted. When step S735 is executed, step S740 needs to be furtherexecuted; and when step S735 is not executed, step S740 does not need tobe executed. When the configuration information includes an uplink flag,step S735 and step S740 are not executed, and only step S730 isexecuted, that is, the user equipment receives the downlink signaling ordownlink data from the macro network node, and does not receive thedownlink signaling or downlink data from the micro network node.

S745: The user equipment deletes duplicate signaling or data in thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node andin the downlink signaling or downlink data sent by the micro networknode.

The present invention elaborates the communication process among theuser equipment, the macro network node, and the micro network node byusing the foregoing multiple application scenarios.

Referring to FIG. 14, a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes:

a first sending unit 1101, configured to send a request message to amicro network node, so that the micro network node sends an indicationmessage to a macro network node; and

an obtaining unit 1102, configured to receive an uplink resource (UG)sent according to the indication message by the macro network node,where

the first sending unit 1101 is further configured to send uplinksignaling or uplink data to the macro network node according to theuplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtaining unit.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first sending unit 1101sends a request message to a micro network node, so that the micronetwork node sends an indication message to a macro network node; theobtaining unit 1102 receives an uplink resource (UG) sent according tothe indication message by the macro network node; and the first sendingunit 1101 sends uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro networknode according to the uplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtainingunit. Compared with the prior art, the user equipment provided by theembodiment of the present invention more rapidly accesses a network withthe participation of the micro network node, thereby reducing an accessdelay.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, in a first optionalembodiment of the user equipment according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the obtaining unit 1102 is configured to receive, by using anon-contention-based random access procedure, a first timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG) in the non-contention-based randomaccess procedure; and

the first sending unit 1101 is configured to send the uplink signalingor uplink data to the macro network node according to the first timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtaining unit1102.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, in a second optionalembodiment of the user equipment according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the obtaining unit 1102 is configured to read an existing second timingadvance (TA), and receive, through a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH), the uplink resource (UG) sent by the macro network node; and

the first sending unit 1101 is configured to send the uplink signalingor uplink data to the macro network node according to the second timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) obtained by the obtaining unit1102.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, referring to FIG.15, in a third optional embodiment of the user equipment according tothe embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a first determining unit 1103, configured to: before the first sendingunit 1101 sends the request message, determine first control informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data, where both the request messageand the indication message carry the first control information, and thefirst control information is used by the macro network node to performaccess control on the user equipment.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, referring to FIG.16, in a fourth optional embodiment of the user equipment according tothe embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a first receiving unit 1104, configured to receive a first configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the first configurationmessage carries an uplink synchronization flag and/or second controlinformation, the uplink synchronization flag is used for instructing,after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advance group (TAG) towhich a macro cell controlled by the macro network node belongs expires,the user equipment to still maintain continuous running of a TAT of aTAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro network node belongs.

Based on the fourth optional embodiment, referring to FIG. 17, in afifth optional embodiment of the user equipment according to theembodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a second determining unit 1105, configured to determine third controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, and send the requestmessage to the micro network node when the third control informationmeets an access control rule specified by the second controlinformation.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, referring to FIG.18, in a sixth optional embodiment of the user equipment according tothe embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a third determining unit 1106, configured to determine fourth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where the requestmessage carries the fourth control information, so that afterdetermining that the fourth control information meets an access controlrule specified by fifth control information that is carried in a secondconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, the micro networknode sends the indication message to the macro network node.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, referring to FIG.19, in a seventh optional embodiment of the user equipment according tothe embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a second receiving unit 1107, configured to receive a thirdconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the thirdconfiguration message carries sixth control information; and

a fourth determining unit 1108, configured to determine seventh controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where

the first sending unit 1101 is further configured to: when the seventhcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the sixthcontrol information, send the request message to the micro network node.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment corresponding to FIG. 14, referring to FIG.20, in an eighth optional embodiment of the user equipment according tothe embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment furtherincludes:

a third receiving unit 1109, configured to receive a fourthconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the fourthconfiguration message carries eighth control information; and

a fifth determining unit 1110, configured to determine ninth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data, where

the first sending unit 1101 is further configured to: when the ninthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the eighthcontrol information, send the request message to the micro network node.

Referring to FIG. 21, a macro network node device according to anembodiment of the present invention includes:

a fourth receiving unit 2101, configured to receive an indicationmessage that is sent by a micro network node after the micro networknode receives a request message sent by a user equipment; and

a second sending unit 2102, configured to send an uplink resource (UG)to the user equipment according to the indication message, so that theuser equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according to theuplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, the fourth receiving unit2101 receives an indication message that is sent by a micro network nodeafter the micro network node receives a request message sent by a userequipment; and the second sending unit 2102 sends an uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment according to the indication message, so thatthe user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according tothe uplink resource (UG). Compared with the prior art, the macro networknode device provided by the embodiment of the present invention can helpthe UE more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an access delayof the UE.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21, in a first optionalembodiment of the macro network node device according to the embodimentof the present invention,

the second sending unit 2102 is configured to initiate anon-contention-based random access procedure to the user equipmentaccording to the indication message, and send a first timing advance(TA) and the uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment in thenon-contention-based random access procedure, so that the user equipmentsends uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network nodeaccording to the first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21, in a second optionalembodiment of the macro network node device according to the embodimentof the present invention,

the second sending unit 2102 is configured to send the uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment through a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) according to the indication message, so that the user equipmentsends, after reading an existing second timing advance (TA), uplinksignaling or uplink data to the macro network node according to thesecond timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and the first or thesecond optional embodiment, referring to FIG. 22, in a third optionalembodiment of the macro network node device according to the embodimentof the present invention, both the request message and the indicationmessage carry size information of the uplink signaling or uplink data tobe sent; the macro network node device further includes: a resourcedetermining unit 2103, where

the resource determining unit 2103 is configured to determine the uplinkresource (UG) required for the uplink signaling or uplink data accordingto the size information of the uplink signaling or uplink data, andallocate the determined uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and any one of thefirst to the third optional embodiments, in a fourth optional embodimentof the macro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention, both the request message and the indication messagefurther carry first control information, determined by the userequipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data. Referring to FIG. 23,the macro network node device further includes:

a first control unit 2104, configured to perform access control on theuser equipment according to the first control information.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and any one of thefirst to the fourth optional embodiments, in a fifth optional embodimentof the macro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the second sending unit 2012 is further configured to send a firstconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the firstconfiguration message carries an uplink synchronization flag and/orsecond control information, and the uplink synchronization flag is usedfor instructing, after a time alignment timer (TAT) of a timing advancegroup (TAG) to which a macro cell controlled by the macro network nodebelongs expires, the user equipment to still maintain continuous runningof a TAT of a TAG to which a micro cell controlled by the micro networknode belongs.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and any one of thefirst to the fourth optional embodiments, in a sixth optional embodimentof the macro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the second sending unit 2012 is further configured to send a secondconfiguration message to the micro network node, where the secondconfiguration message carries fifth control information, so that afterdetermining that the fourth control information meets an access controlrule specified by the fifth control information, the micro network nodesends the indication message to the macro network node.

Based on the sixth optional embodiment, referring to FIG. 24, in aseventh optional embodiment of the macro network node device accordingto the embodiment of the present invention, the macro network nodedevice further includes:

a second control unit 2105, configured to perform access control on theuser equipment according to the fourth control information.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and any one of thefirst to the fourth optional embodiments, in an eighth optionalembodiment of the macro network node device according to the embodimentof the present invention, referring to FIG. 25, the macro network nodedevice further includes:

the second sending unit 2102 is further configured to send a thirdconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the thirdconfiguration message carries sixth control information, so that afterdetermining that seventh control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data meets an access control rule specified by the sixth controlinformation, the user equipment sends the request message to the micronetwork node;

a third control unit 2106, configured to: when both the request messageand the indication message further carry the seventh controlinformation, perform access control on the user equipment according tothe seventh control information.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 21 and any one of thefirst to the fourth optional embodiments, in a ninth optional embodimentof the macro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the second sending unit 2102 is further configured to send a fourthconfiguration message to the user equipment, where the fourthconfiguration message carries eighth control information, so that afterdetermining that ninth control information of the uplink signaling oruplink data meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, the user equipment sends the request message to the micronetwork node;

the request message carries the ninth control information; and

the second sending unit 2102 is further configured to send a fifthconfiguration message to the micro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information, so that afterdetermining that the ninth control information meets an access controlrule specified by the tenth control information, the micro network nodesends the indication message to the macro network node.

Based on the ninth optional embodiment, and referring to FIG. 26, in atenth optional embodiment of the macro network node device according tothe embodiment of the present invention,

the macro network node device further includes:

a fourth control unit 2107, configured to perform access control on theuser equipment according to the ninth control information.

Referring to FIG. 27, a micro network node device according to anembodiment of the present invention includes:

a fifth receiving unit 3101, configured to receive a request messagesent by a user equipment; and

a third sending unit 3102, configured to send an indication message to amacro network node, so that the macro network node allocates an uplinkresource (UG) to the user equipment, and then the user equipment sendsuplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network node by using theuplink resource (UG).

In the embodiment of the present invention, the fifth receiving unit3101 receives a request message sent by a user equipment; and the thirdsending unit 3102 sends an indication message to a macro network node,so that the macro network node allocates an uplink resource (UG) to theuser equipment, and then the user equipment sends uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node by using the uplink resource (UG).Compared with the prior art, the micro network node device provided bythe embodiment of the present invention can help the UE more rapidlyaccess a network, thereby reducing an access delay of the UE.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 27, and referring to FIG.28, a first optional embodiment of the micro network node deviceaccording to the embodiment of the present invention includes:

the fifth receiving unit 3101 is further configured to receive a secondconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the secondconfiguration message carries fifth control information;

a sixth determining unit 3103, configured to determine whether thefourth control information meets an access control rule specified by thefifth control information.

The third sending unit 3102 is further configured to: after the fourthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the fifthcontrol information, send the indication message to the macro networknode.

Based on the first optional embodiment, in a second optional embodimentof the micro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention,

the fifth receiving unit 3101 is configured to: after seventh controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by sixth controlinformation that is carried in a third configuration message sent by themacro network node, receive the request message sent by the userequipment, where the request message carries the seventh controlinformation.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 27, and referring to FIG.29, a third optional embodiment of the micro network node deviceaccording to the embodiment of the present invention includes:

the fifth receiving unit 3101 is configured to: after ninth controlinformation, determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signalingor uplink data meets an access control rule specified by eighth controlinformation that is carried in a fourth configuration message sent bythe macro network node, receive the request message sent by the userequipment, where the request message carries the ninth controlinformation; and

the fifth receiving unit 3101 is further configured to receive a fifthconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information;

a seventh determining unit 3105, configured to determine whether theninth control information meets an access control rule specified by thetenth control information.

The third sending unit 3102 is further configured to: after the ninthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the tenthcontrol information, send the indication message to the macro networknode.

Referring to FIG. 30, a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes:

a sixth receiving unit 1201, configured to receive configurationinformation sent by a macro network node; and

a fourth sending unit 1202, configured to send uplink signaling oruplink data to a micro network node and/or the macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information received by the sixthreceiving unit 1201.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the sixth receiving unit1201 receives configuration information sent by a macro network node,and the fourth sending unit 1202 sends uplink signaling or uplink datato a micro network node and/or the macro network node according to theconfiguration information received by the sixth receiving unit 1201.Compared with the prior art, the user equipment according to theembodiment of the present invention can more rapidly access a network.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 30, and referring to FIG.31, a first optional embodiment of the user equipment according to theembodiment of the present invention includes:

the sixth receiving unit 1201 is configured to receive downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node and/or themicro network node;

a first processing unit 1203, configured to: when the downlink signalingor downlink data sent by the macro network node and the micro networknode is received, delete duplicate signaling or data in the downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node and in thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the micro network node.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 30 or FIG. 31, in a secondoptional embodiment of the user equipment provided by the embodiment ofthe present invention,

the fourth sending unit 1202 is configured to send, to the micro networknode, the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to an identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent by using a default logical channel and through amicro cell corresponding to an identity of the micro cell.

Based on the second optional embodiment, in a third optional embodimentof the user equipment according to the embodiment of the presentinvention,

the fourth sending unit 1202 is configured to send, to the micro networknode, the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent by using a logical channel corresponding to anidentity of the LCH and through the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

Based on the second or the third optional embodiment, in a fourthoptional embodiment of the user equipment according to the embodiment ofthe present invention,

the sixth receiving unit 1201 is configured to receive downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node.

Referring to FIG. 32, an embodiment of a macro network node deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention includes:

a fifth sending unit 2201, configured to send configuration informationto a user equipment, so that the user equipment sends uplink signalingor uplink data to a micro network node and/or a macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information; and

a seventh receiving unit 2202, configured to receive the uplinksignaling or uplink data that is sent by the user equipment andforwarded by the micro network node, and/or receive the uplink signalingor uplink data sent by the user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the fifth sending unit 2201sends configuration information to a user equipment, so that the userequipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to a micro network nodeand/or a macro network node according to the configuration information;and the seventh receiving unit 2202 receives uplink signaling or uplinkdata that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by the micronetwork node and/or receives uplink signaling or uplink data sent by theuser equipment. Compared with the prior art, the macro network nodedevice provided by the embodiment of the present invention can help theUE more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing an access delay ofthe UE.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 32, and referring to FIG.33, a first optional embodiment of the macro network node deviceaccording to the embodiment of the present invention further includes:

a second processing unit 2203, configured to: when the uplink signalingor uplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node is received and the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment is received, delete duplicate signaling ordata in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipmentand in the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro networknode.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 33, and referring to FIG.34, a second optional embodiment of the macro network node deviceaccording to the embodiment of the present invention further includes:

a sixth sending unit, configured to send another configurationinformation to the micro network node, so that the micro network nodeforwards downlink signaling or downlink data to the user equipmentaccording to the another configuration information, where

the sixth sending unit is further configured to send the downlinksignaling or downlink data to the micro network node.

Referring to FIG. 35, a micro network node device according to anembodiment of the present invention includes:

an eighth receiving unit 3201, configured to receive anotherconfiguration information sent by a macro network node, where

the eighth receiving unit 3201 is further configured to receive downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node; and

a seventh sending unit 3202, configured to forward the downlinksignaling or downlink data to the user equipment according to theanother configuration information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the eighth receiving unit3201 receives another configuration information sent by a macro networknode; the eighth receiving unit 3201 is further configured to receivedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node; andthe seventh sending unit 3202 forwards the downlink signaling ordownlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information. Compared with the prior art, the micronetwork node device provided by the embodiment of the present inventioncan help the UE more rapidly access a network, thereby reducing anaccess delay of the UE.

Based on the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 35, in a first optionalembodiment of the micro network node device according to the embodimentof the present invention,

the another configuration information includes an identity of the userequipment and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) of the user equipment;and

the seventh sending unit 3202 is configured to send, to the userequipment, the downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on aradio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlinksignaling or downlink data is sent by using a default logical channeland through a micro cell corresponding to an identity of the micro cell.

Based on the first optional embodiment, in a second optional embodimentof the micro network node device according to the embodiment of thepresent invention, when the another configuration information furtherincludes an identity of a logical channel (LCH),

the seventh sending unit 3202 is configured to send, to the userequipment, the downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on aradio bearer corresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlinksignaling or downlink data is sent through a logical channelcorresponding to the identity of the LCH by using the micro cellcorresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

Referring to FIG. 36, a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes: a first receiver 1301, a first transmitter1302, a first memory 1303, and a first processor 1304.

The first transmitter 1302 is configured to send a request message to amicro network node, so that the micro network node sends an indicationmessage to a macro network node.

The first receiver 1301 is configured to receive an uplink resource (UG)sent according to the indication message by the macro network node.

The first transmitter 1302 is further configured to send uplinksignaling or uplink data to the macro network node according to theuplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first receiver 1301 isconfigured to obtain, by using a non-contention-based random accessprocedure, a first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) inthe non-contention-based random access procedure; and

the first transmitter 1302 is configured to send uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the first timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first receiver 1301 isconfigured to read an existing second timing advance (TA), and receive,through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the uplink resource(UG) sent by the macro network node; and

the first transmitter 1302 is configured to send the uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the second timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first processor 1304is configured to determine first control information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first receiver 1301 isconfigured to receive a first configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, where the first configuration message carries an uplinksynchronization flag and/or second control information, and the uplinksynchronization flag is used for instructing, after a time alignmenttimer (TAT) of a timing advance group (TAG) to which a macro cellcontrolled by the macro network node belongs expires, the user equipmentto still maintain continuous running of a TAT of a TAG to which a microcell controlled by the micro network node belongs.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first processor 1304is configured to determine third control information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter 1302 is configured to: when the third controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the second controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first processor 1304is configured to determine fourth control information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data, where the request message carries the fourthcontrol information, so that after determining that the fourth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by fifth controlinformation that is carried in a second configuration message sent bythe macro network node, the micro network node sends the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first receiver 1301 isconfigured to receive a third configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, where the third configuration message carries sixthcontrol information;

the first processor 1304 is configured to determine seventh controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter 1302 is configured to: when the seventh controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the sixth controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first receiver 1301 isconfigured to receive a fourth configuration message sent by the macronetwork node, where the fourth configuration message carries eighthcontrol information;

the first processor 1304 is configured to determine ninth controlinformation of the uplink signaling or uplink data; and

the first transmitter 1302 is configured to: when the ninth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the eighth controlinformation, send the request message to the micro network node.

Referring to FIG. 37, a macro network node device according to anembodiment of the present invention includes: a second receiver 2301, asecond transmitter 2302, a second memory 2303, and a second processor2304.

The second receiver 2301 is configured to receive an indication messagethat is sent by a micro network node after the micro network nodereceives a request message sent by a user equipment.

The second transmitter 2302 is configured to send an uplink resource(UG) to the user equipment according to the indication message, so thatthe user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data according tothe uplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to initiate a non-contention-based random accessprocedure to the user equipment according to the indication message, andsend a first timing advance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG) to theuser equipment in the non-contention-based random access procedure, sothat the user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the first timing advance (TA) and theuplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to send the uplink resource (UG) to the userequipment through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) accordingto the indication message, so that the user equipment sends, afterreading an existing second timing advance (TA), uplink signaling oruplink data to the macro network node according to the second timingadvance (TA) and the uplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, both the request messageand the indication message carry size information of the uplinksignaling or uplink data to be sent; and

the second processor 2304 is configured to determine the uplink resource(UG) according to the size information of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata.

In some embodiments of the present invention, both the request messageand the indication message further carry first control information,determined by the user equipment, of the uplink signaling or uplinkdata; and

the second processor 2304 is configured to perform access control on theuser equipment according to the first control information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to send a first configuration message to the userequipment, where the first configuration message carries an uplinksynchronization flag and/or second control information, and the uplinksynchronization flag is used for instructing, after a time alignmenttimer (TAT) of a timing advance group (TAG) to which a macro cellcontrolled by the macro network node belongs, the user equipment tostill maintain continuous running of a TAT of a TAG to which a microcell controlled by the micro network node belongs.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to send a second configuration message to the micronetwork node, where the second configuration message carries fifthcontrol information, so that after determining that fourth controlinformation meets an access control rule specified by the fifth controlinformation, the micro network node sends the indication message to themacro network node; and

the second processor 2304 is further configured to: when the indicationmessage carries the fourth control information, perform access controlon the user equipment according to the fourth control information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to send a third configuration message to the userequipment, where the third configuration message carries sixth controlinformation, so that after determining that seventh control informationof the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rulespecified by the sixth control information, the user equipment sends therequest message to the micro network node; and

the second processor 2304 is configured to: when both the requestmessage and the indication message further carry the seventh controlinformation, perform access control on the user equipment according tothe seventh control information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second transmitter2302 is configured to send a fourth configuration message to the userequipment, where the fourth configuration message carries eighth controlinformation, so that after determining that ninth control information ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data meets an access control rulespecified by the eighth control information, the user equipment sendsthe request message to the micro network node; and

the second transmitter 2302 is configured to send a fifth configurationmessage to the micro network node, where the fifth configuration messagecarries tenth control information, so that after determining that theninth control information meets an access control rule specified by thetenth control information, the micro network node sends the indicationmessage to the macro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the second processor 2304performs access control on the user equipment according to the ninthcontrol information.

Referring to FIG. 38, a micro network node device according to anembodiment of the present invention includes: a third receiver 3301, athird transmitter 3302, a third memory 3303, and a third processor 3304.

The third receiver 3301 is configured to receive a request message sentby a user equipment; and

the third transmitter 3302 is configured to send an indication messageto a macro network node according to the request message, so that themacro network node sends an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment,and then the user equipment sends uplink signaling or uplink data to themacro network node according to the uplink resource (UG).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the request messagecarries fourth control information, determined by the user equipment, ofthe uplink signaling or uplink data.

The third receiver 3301 is configured to receive a second configurationmessage sent by the macro network node, where the second configurationmessage carries fifth control information.

The third processor 3304 is configured to determine whether the fourthcontrol information meets an access control rule of the fifth controlinformation.

The third transmitter 3302 is configured to: after the fourth controlinformation meets the access control rule specified by the fifth controlinformation, send the indication message to the macro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the third receiver 3301 isconfigured to: when seventh control information, determined by the userequipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an accesscontrol rule specified by sixth control information that is carried in athird configuration message sent by the macro network node, receive therequest message sent by the user equipment, where the request messagecarries the seventh control information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the third receiver 3301 isconfigured to: when ninth control information, determined by the userequipment, of the uplink signaling or uplink data meets an accesscontrol rule specified by eighth control information that is carried ina fourth configuration message sent by the macro network node, receivethe request message sent by the user equipment, where the requestmessage carries the ninth control information.

The third receiver 3301 is further configured to receive a fifthconfiguration message sent by the macro network node, where the fifthconfiguration message carries tenth control information.

The third processor 3304 is configured to determine whether the ninthcontrol information meets an access control rule of the tenth controlinformation.

The third transmitter 3302 is further configured to: when the ninthcontrol information meets an access control rule specified by the tenthcontrol information, send the indication message to the macro networknode.

Referring to FIG. 39, a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes: a fourth receiver 1401, a fourth transmitter1402, a fourth memory 1403, and a fourth processor 1404.

The fourth receiver 1401 is configured to receive configurationinformation sent by a macro network node.

The fourth transmitter 1402 is configured to send uplink signaling oruplink data to a micro network node and/or the macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the fourth receiver 1401is configured to receive downlink signaling or downlink data sent by themacro network node and/or the micro network node.

The fourth processor 1404 is configured to: when the downlink signalingor downlink data sent by the macro network node and the micro networknode is received, delete duplicate signaling or data in the downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node and in thedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the micro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the configurationinformation includes an identity of a micro cell controlled by the micronetwork node and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) of the userequipment.

The fourth transmitter 1402 is configured to send, to the micro networknode, the uplink signaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling oruplink data is sent by using a default logical channel and through amicro cell corresponding to the identity of the micro cell.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the fourth transmitter1402 is configured to send, to the micro network node, the uplinksignaling or uplink data transmitted on a radio bearer corresponding tothe identity of the RB, where the uplink signaling or uplink data issent by using a logical channel corresponding to the identity of the LCHand through the micro cell corresponding to the identity of the microcell.

In some embodiments of the present invention, when the configurationinformation further includes an uplink flag,

the fourth receiver 1401 is configured to receive the downlink signalingor downlink data sent by the macro network node.

Referring to FIG. 40, an embodiment of a macro network node deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a fifthreceiver 2401, a fifth transmitter 2402, a fifth memory 2403, and afifth processor 2404.

The fifth transmitter 2402 is configured to send configurationinformation to a user equipment, so that the user equipment sends uplinksignaling or uplink data to a micro network node and/or a macro networknode according to the configuration information; and

the fifth receiver 2401 is configured to receive the uplink signaling oruplink data that is sent by the user equipment and forwarded by themicro network node, and/or receive the uplink signaling or uplink datasent by the user equipment.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the fifth processor 2404is configured to: when the uplink signaling or uplink data that is sentby the user equipment and forwarded by the micro network node isreceived and the uplink signaling or uplink data sent by the userequipment is received, delete the duplicate signaling or data in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment and in theuplink signaling or uplink data sent by the micro network node.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the fifth transmitter 2402is configured to send another configuration information to the micronetwork node, so that the micro network node forwards downlink signalingor downlink data to the user equipment according to the anotherconfiguration information; and

the fifth transmitter 2402 is configured to send the downlink signalingor downlink data to the micro network node.

Referring to FIG. 41, an embodiment of a micro network node deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a sixthreceiver 3401, a sixth transmitter 3402, a sixth memory 3403, and asixth processor 3404.

The sixth receiver 3401 is configured to receive another configurationinformation sent by a macro network node.

The sixth transmitter 3402 is further configured to receive downlinksignaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node.

The sixth transmitter 3402 is configured to forward the downlinksignaling or downlink data to the user equipment according to theanother configuration information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the sixth transmitter 3402is configured to send, to the user equipment, the downlink signaling ordownlink data transmitted on a radio bearer corresponding to theidentity of the RB, where the downlink signaling or downlink data issent by using a default logical channel and through a micro cellcorresponding to an identity of the micro cell.

In some embodiments of the present invention, when the anotherconfiguration information further includes an identity of the logicalchannel (LCH),

the sixth transmitter 3402 is configured to send, to the user equipment,the downlink signaling or downlink data transmitted on a radio bearercorresponding to the identity of the RB, where the downlink signaling ordownlink data is sent by using a logical channel corresponding to theidentity of the LCH and through the micro cell corresponding to theidentity of the micro cell.

Referring to FIG. 42A, an embodiment of a communication system accordingto an embodiment of the present invention includes: a user equipment100, a macro network node device 200, and a micro network node device300.

The user equipment 100 is configured to send a request message to amicro network node, so that the micro network node sends an indicationmessage to a macro network node; and receive an uplink resource (UG)sent according to the indication message by the macro network node, andsend uplink signaling or uplink data to the macro network node accordingto the uplink resource (UG).

The macro network node device 200 is configured to receive theindication message that is sent by the micro network node after themicro network node receives the request message sent by the userequipment; and send an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipmentaccording to the indication message, so that the user equipment sendsuplink signaling or uplink data according to the uplink resource (UG).

The micro network node device 300 is configured to receive the requestmessage sent by the user equipment; and send the indication message tothe macro network node according to the request message, so that themacro network node sends an uplink resource (UG) to the user equipment,and then the user equipment sends the uplink signaling or uplink dataaccording to the uplink resource (UG).

Referring to FIG. 42B, another embodiment of the communication systemaccording to the embodiment of the present invention includes: a userequipment 100, a macro network node device 200, and a micro network nodedevice 300.

The user equipment 100 is configured to receive configurationinformation sent by a macro network node, and send uplink signaling oruplink data to a micro network node and/or the macro network nodeaccording to the configuration information.

The macro network node device 200 is configured to send configurationinformation to the user equipment, so that the user equipment sendsuplink signaling or uplink data to the micro network node and/or themacro network node according to the configuration information; andreceive uplink signaling or uplink data that is sent by the userequipment and forwarded by the micro network node and/or receive uplinksignaling or uplink data sent by the user equipment.

The micro network node device 300 is configured to receive anotherconfiguration information sent by the macro network node; receivedownlink signaling or downlink data sent by the macro network node; andforward the downlink signaling or downlink data to the user equipmentaccording to the another configuration information.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or a partof the steps of the methods in the foregoing embodiments may beimplemented by a program instructing relevant hardware. The program maybe stored in a computer readable storage medium. The storage medium mayinclude a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

The communication method, device, and system according to theembodiments of the present invention are introduced in detail above.Specific examples are used for describing principles and implementationmanners of the present invention. The foregoing descriptions of theembodiments are merely for understanding a method and a core idea of thepresent invention. Meanwhile, a person of ordinary skill in the art maymake modifications to the specific implementation manners andapplication ranges according to the idea of the present invention. Tosum up, the content of the specification shall not be regarded as alimitation to the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communication method, comprising: receiving, bya user equipment (UE), configuration information from a first networknode; and sending, by the UE, uplink information to a second networknode according to the configuration information, wherein the uplinkinformation sent to the second network node comprises uplink signalingand/or uplink data.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: theconfiguration information comprises an identity of a cell controlled bythe second network node and an identity of a radio bearer (RB) of theUE; and sending the uplink information comprises: sending, through acell corresponding to the identity of the cell controlled by the secondnetwork node, the uplink information to the second network node, whereinthe uplink information is sent on an RB corresponding to the identity ofthe RB.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the uplinkinformation is sent to the second network node through a default logicalchannel.
 4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the configurationinformation further comprises a logical channel (LCH) identity, and theuplink information is sent to the second network node through a logicalchannel corresponding to the LCH identity.
 5. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising: sending, by the UE, uplink information tothe first network node, wherein the uplink information sent to the firstnetwork node and the uplink information sent to the second network nodecomprise duplicate information, wherein the uplink information sent tothe first network node comprises uplink signaling and/or uplink data. 6.The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by theUE, downlink information from the first network node and downlinkinformation from the second network node; and deleting, by the UE,duplicate information in the downlink information from the first networknode and in the downlink information from the second network node,wherein downlink information from the first network node comprisesdownlink signaling and/or downlink data, and downlink information fromthe second network node comprises downlink signaling and/or downlinkdata.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first network nodeis a macro network node, and the second network node is a micro networknode.
 8. A device comprising: a processor, configured to invoke aprogram stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage mediumwhich, when executed by the processor, causes the device to: receiveconfiguration information from a first network node; and send uplinkinformation to a second network node according to the configurationinformation, wherein the uplink information sent to the second networknode comprises uplink signaling and/or uplink data.
 9. The deviceaccording to claim 8, wherein: the configuration information comprisesan identity of a cell controlled by the second network node and anidentity of a radio bearer (RB) of the device; and to send uplinkinformation to the second network node, the program stored in thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium, when executed by theprocessor, causes the device to: send the uplink information through acell corresponding to the identity of the cell controlled by the secondnetwork node and on an RB corresponding to the identity of the RB. 10.The device according to claim 9, wherein to send uplink information tothe second network node, the program stored in the non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium, when executed by the processor, causesthe device to: send the uplink information to the second network nodethrough a default logical channel.
 11. The device according to claim 9,wherein: the configuration information further comprises a logicalchannel (LCH) identity; and to send uplink information to the secondnetwork node, the program stored in the non-transitory computer readablestorage medium, when executed by the processor, causes the device to:send the uplink information through a logical channel corresponding tothe LCH identity.
 12. The device according to claim 8, wherein theprogram stored in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium,when executed by the processor, further causes the device to: senduplink information to the first network node, wherein the uplinkinformation sent to the first network node and the uplink informationsent to the second network node comprise duplicate information, whereinthe uplink information sent to the first network node comprises uplinksignaling and/or uplink data.
 13. The device according to claim 8,wherein the program stored in the non-transitory computer readablestorage medium, when executed by the processor, further causes thedevice to: receive downlink information from the first network node anddownlink information from the second network node; and delete duplicateinformation in the downlink information from the first network node andin the downlink information from the second network node, whereindownlink information from the first network node comprises downlinksignaling and/or downlink data, and downlink information from the secondnetwork node comprises downlink signaling and/or downlink data.
 14. Thedevice according to claim 8, wherein the first network node is a macronetwork node, and the second network node is a micro network node.
 15. Acommunication method, comprising: sending, by a first network node,configuration information to a user equipment (UE) for indicating to theUE to send uplink information to a second network node; and receiving,by the first network node, uplink information that is sent by the UE tothe second network node and forwarded by the second network node,wherein the uplink information sent to the second network node comprisesuplink signaling and/or uplink data.
 16. The method according to claim15, wherein the configuration information comprises an identity of acell controlled by the second network node and an identity of a radiobearer (RB) of the UE, and the uplink information on an RB correspondingto the identity of the RB is sent to the second network node through acell corresponding to the identity of the cell controlled by the secondnetwork node.
 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the uplinkinformation is sent to the second network node through a default logicalchannel.
 18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the configurationinformation further comprises a logical channel (LCH) identity, and theuplink information is sent to the second network node through a logicalchannel corresponding to the LCH identity.
 19. The method according toclaim 15, further comprising: receiving, by the first network node,uplink information that is sent by the UE to the first network node,wherein the uplink information sent to the first network node comprisesuplink signaling and/or uplink data; and deleting, by the first networknode, duplicate information in the uplink information forwarded by thesecond network node and in the uplink information sent by the userequipment to the first network node.
 20. The method according to claim15, further comprising: sending, by the first network node, anotherconfiguration information to the second network node, so that the secondnetwork node forwards downlink information to the UE according to theanother configuration information; and sending, by the first networknode, the downlink information to the second network node.
 21. A device,comprising a processor, configured to invoke a program stored in anon-transitory computer readable storage medium which, when executed bythe processor, causes the device to: send configuration information to auser equipment (UE) for indicating to the UE to send uplink informationto a second network node; and receive uplink information that is sent bythe UE to the second network node and forwarded by the second networknode, wherein the uplink information sent to the second network nodecomprises uplink signaling and/or uplink data.
 22. The device accordingto claim 21, wherein: the configuration information comprises anidentity of a cell controlled by the second network node and an identityof a radio bearer (RB) of the UE; and to send uplink information to thesecond network node, the program stored in the non-transitory computerreadable storage medium, when executed by the processor, causes thedevice to: send the uplink information through a cell corresponding tothe identity of the cell controlled by the second network node and on anRB corresponding to the identity of the RB.
 23. The device according toclaim 22, wherein to send uplink information to the second network node,the program stored in the non-transitory computer readable storagemedium, when executed by the processor, causes the device to: send theuplink information to the second network node through a default logicalchannel.
 24. The device according to claim 23, wherein: theconfiguration information further comprises a logical channel (LCH)identity; and to send uplink information to the second network node, theprogram stored in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium,when executed by the processor, causes the device to: send the uplinkinformation to the second network node through a logical channelcorresponding to the LCH identity.
 25. The device according to claim 21,wherein the program stored in the non-transitory computer readablestorage medium, when executed by the processor, further causes thedevice to: receive uplink information that is sent by the UE, whereinthe uplink information sent to the UE comprises uplink signaling and/oruplink data; and delete duplicate information in the uplink informationforwarded by the second network node and in the uplink information sentby the UE.
 26. The device according to claim 21, wherein the programstored in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium, whenexecuted by the processor, further causes the device to: send anotherconfiguration information to the second network node for forwardingdownlink information by the second network node to the UE according tothe other configuration information; and send the downlink informationto the second network node.
 27. The device according to claim 21,wherein the device is a macro network node, and the second network nodeis a micro network node.
 28. A communication system, comprising: a firstnetwork node configured to send configuration information to a userequipment (UE) for indicate to the UE to send uplink information; and asecond network node is configured to receive the uplink information fromUE.